The Battle of Visions
11 October - 3 December 2005
Kunsthalle Darmstadt
Opening: 5 p.m., 9 October
Co-organized by: ARKO(Arts Council Korea), KOGAF(The Korean Organizing Committee for the Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2005), Kunsthalle Darmstadt
Co-Curated by: Beck Jee-sook, Arts Council Korea, Seoul, Korea & Dr. Peter Joch, Kunsthalle Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany
The Battle of Visions
Participating Artists:
Young-Whan BAE, CHOI Jeong-Hwa, CHOI Min Hwa Chul Hwan, Haejun JO & Kyeong Soo LEE, JOO Jae-whan, KIM Jung Heun, Yongtai KIM & KIM Young Soo, KOH Seung Wook, Oksang LIM, MIN Joung Ki, Yong Soon MIN, Mixrice, ROH Jae Oon, OH Yoon, PARK Young-Sook, SHIN Hak-chul, SHIN Ji Cheol, SON Ki Hwan, Sanghee SONG
(in the alphabetical order of the artists last names)
It was with the rise of Minjung Art(Peoples art) in the 1980s that politically critical art developed in modern Korea. The Battle of Visions is an exhibition that has been organized to provide a perspective on the birth, the progress, and the future prospects of socially critical art in Korea. In contemporary Korean society as anywhere else in the world, the political art itself is going through self-questioning and transformation. Being critical of current local realities, its criticisms and sense of responsibility should be shared and communicated across the globe reaching beyond the local political condition. It is being required to develop into a total concept that encompasses a critical consciousness and attitude toward the overall sense of time and space, memory, society, reality, the public, and history; it also includes practices and projects for bilateral or multi-lateral international communications, to see how such consciousness and attitudes resonate in the international context. At the level of the individual artist, and at the level of the exhibition as a whole, the works featured in The Battle are at once the continuation and the discontinuation of the Minjung Art from the 1980s, the conclusion and a return to the 80s. It is art whose tense continues to be present-progressive.
Exhibition Catalogue
ARKO and KOGAF will publish a catalogue of the exhibition, and it will serve as a critique of Minjung Art and socially critical art in general in Korea. The catalogue will contain five articles in English and German and a hundred plates of works of art.
Special Events Lectures & discussions:
Conflicts and Progress, 11 Oct (Tues.) 6 pm 10 pm, moderated by Dr. Peter Joch (with Korean and German translation)
Understanding Minjung Art and Commentary on the Works in the Exhibit,
by Choi Min(Professor, The School of Media Arts, The Korea Nation University of Arts, Seoul, Korea)
Cultural Growth after Minjung Cultural Movement,
by Chin Jungkwon(Cultural Critic & Professor, Chung Ang University, Seoul, Korea)
Film and Video Screening:
Part I Mourning History, Part II – Projecting the Contemporary
Programmed by Yoonah Han (Film Festival Programmer).
Session I 19 Oct (Wed) 6 pm Part I, 8 pm Part II
Session II 16 Nov (Wed) 6 pm Part I, 8 pm Part II
Literature Program
When: 22 Oct 5 – 7 pm
Programmed by KOGAF
Featuring : Hyun Gi Young, Shin Kyongnim, Jo Jong-Rae & Lim Chul-Woo
(For more information on this event, please contact Hyesu Shin, KOGAF, at hyesu.shin@enterkorea.net)
Press Contacts:
Arts Council Korea(ARKO) Heejin Kim: hjk@arko.or.kr
100-5 Gwanhoon-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, Korea 110-300
Tel : 822-760-4722, Fax: 822-760-4725 www.arko.or.kr www.insaartspace.or.kr
Kunsthalle Darmstadt
Dr. Peter Joch: Kunsthalle-Darmstadt@web.de
Steubenplatz 1, D-64293 Darmstadt, 64293 Darmstadt
Tel. 06151.891184 Fax: 06151.897797 www.kunsthalledarmstadt.de
Korean Organizing Committee for the Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2005 (KOGAF) San Keum Koh: sankeum@enterkorea.net
Sejong-no, Jongno-gu, Seoul, Korea
Tel : 822-733-4303, Fax :822-739-2769 www.enterkorea.net
