SEOUL.- The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea and SBS Culture Foundation present Korea Artist Prize 2018. On view until 25 November at MMCA Seoul, Galleries 1 and 2, this exhibition features works by candidates for the Korea Artist Prize 2018.
Co-sponsored by MMCA and the SBS Culture Foundation, the Korea Artist Prize supports and fosters artists who are broadening the horizons of Korean contemporary art with new visions and original ideas. Now in its seventh edition, the Korea Artist Prize has become Korea’s preeminent art prize, shedding light on major trends in Korean contemporary art and shaping the discourse around it.
Deferred Archive by siren eun young jung is an archive of the artist’s research into the question of how the Korean all-female opera genre known as gukgeuk all but vanished from Korean society following liberation from Japanese colonial rule. Through numerous new works (Deferral Theatre, We Apologize for the Delay, No Longer Gagok, I am King ), the artist explores the question of gender in relation to gukgeuk, each piece enlarging the scope and temporal reach of her inquiry, which delves into the problems of the traditional arts as well as issues relevant to contemporary art. Also on display are video clips from performances of Anomalous Fantasy, a play written by the artist on the subject of gukgeuk, as staged in Korea, Taiwan, and Japan.
Yesterday’s Island, Tomorrow’s Island by Minja Gu was inspired by the International Date Line (IDL), which longitudinally bisects the Fijian island of Taveuni in the South Pacific, halfway around the world from the Royal Observatory at Greenwich in London. The line means a day’s difference between the western and eastern parts of the island, so that someone who spends one day east of the line and the next day west of it technically lives the same day twice. A video and installation piece, Yesterday’s Island, Tomorrow’s Island is based on a performance in which the artist and a friend spent 24 hours on either side of the IDL and then switched sides for another 24 hours the next day.
In addition to works that show how time has altered urban buildings, like wrinkles lining a face, Jae Ho Jung presents Rockets and Monsters , an installation piece featuring scenes of exploration from sci-fi films of the 1960s and ’70s, through which the artist poses questions about how the country was shaped by the national drive to build Korea’s scientific and technological competitiveness, once a slogan of national development. The artist also includes a series of paintings in which he incorporates images from this time in Korea’s history, including photos from official government archives as well as images from pop culture, including films and comics. These works shed light on the ways of thinking and seeing instilled in people by a nationalist culture that emphasized the collective over the individual. Evoking scenes from sci-fi comics, his paintings also serve as a clear-eyed record of how the financial crisis and standstill in economic growth have changed social attitudes, causing people to give up dreaming impossible dreams and settle instead for only that which is within reach.
Making use of various forms of art, Okin Collective has continued to blur the lines of art and daily life since it was first formed in response to the eviction of residents from the Okin Apartments in the Jongno-gu district in 2009, ahead of the apartments’ scheduled demolition. At this exhibit, the group presents Random Archive, in which the elements of “language” that emerged over the course of its past projects are extracted in a non-linear fashion and reassembled, in addition to new works that seek to answer the artists’ questions about community—why people in cities form communities, what the dynamics are between individuals and the larger community, and how communities endure. These works showcase the group’s attempt to answer the question, over the course of time spent by each member with communities in Seoul, Jeju, and Incheon, respectively. In Search of Hoijeon, Or the Reverse , for example, tells the story of Hoijeon Art, a community of artists based in Incheon, while House of Gold follows the story of elderly adults who frequent a music café called Kkasadol on Jeju Island.
“From the avant-garde to the traditional, these artists use an impressively broad range of mediums, and together they demonstrate both the uniqueness and universality of Korean contemporary art,” said Cuauhtémoc Medina (chief curator of the 2008 Shanghai Biennale), one of the judges of this year’s prize. Wang Chunchen (curator, head of the Department of Curatorial Research of CAFA Art Museum at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing), who was also on the judging panel, said, “The works of these artists cover everything from Korean tradition and politics to the country’s modernization. It’s fascinating to be able to gain a better appreciation of Korean society and its people through Korean contemporary art.”
On August 31, the artists will take part in an event called “Talking About the MMCA Exhibit: Korea Artist Prize 2018.” On September 5, a final evaluation will take place based on the works presented at the MMCA exhibit and the final winner of this year’s prize will be announced. The final winner will receive an additional KRW 10 million in prize money. A documentary will be created showcasing the works of the final winner as well as the other candidates for the prize and aired by SBS on terrestrial and cable networks.
SBS Culture Foundation also runs the Korea Artist Prize Promotion Fund, which it created to provide support for international projects by past Korea Artist Prize winners and candidates. In 2015, the fund supported Moon Kyungwon and Jeon Joonho, who participated in the Korean Pavilion at the Venice Biennale that year. Other artists who have received support from the fund include Koo Donghee (2017 Sharjah Biennial), Chang Jia (2017–2018 Atlantic Project), and Yee Sookyung (International Art Exhibition, 2017 Venice Biennale). Lim Minouk, Ham Kyungah, Jo Haejun, Gim Hong-sok, Shin Meekyoung, and Kira Kim have also received support for international projects. This year, the fund plans to provide support to Kyungwon Moon and Joonho Jeon for an exhibit at Tate Liverpool as well as Kyungah Ham for her participation in the Bangkok Biennale.
