Curator / Researcher
Special Exhibition
New Media Art Exhibition
17.1.2024-15.4.2024
Curated by Jisu Yoon
Kim Seung Young
Park Sang Hwa
Joanna Raijkowska
Artist
Curatorial Statement
Jisu Yoon, Curator
The Jeonnam Museum of Art has consistently collected works of new media art to showcase a contemporary perspective and engage visitors in new ways. This new media art collection special exhibition is designed to display multilayered interpretations of new media artworks and their value.
This exhibition brings together works by Joanna Raijkowska, a media artist who is internationally recognized and acclaimed; Kim Seung Young, an artist who has presented a wide array of works, crossing the boundaries of genres such as video and installation; and Park Sanghwa, a video artist representative of the Jeonnam region.
Warsaw-based artist Joanna Raijkowska has represented the interrelation between body and mind and equilibrium in the physical and sensuous realms through various media. Kim Seung Young reflects on human existence, including memory, relationships, and communication through media, sculpture, and installation works. Park Sanghwa is a first-generation video artist from the Gwangju and Jeonnam region who has worked with subject matter gained from his personal daily life and experiences, primarily creating fantastic and lyrical forms. These three artists’ works, characterized by using personal experiences and memories as subject matter and recomposing them into videos have something in common in that they give viewers time to think and reflect on the reality of life.
The salient feature of media art is that it allows artists to have direct interactions with the audience through images, sound, and text. We aim to create an interactive exhibition where visitors can become a part of the artwork, rather than just passive viewers. Our hope is that the museum's collection will be regarded as common properties that we can all share, rather than just public properties.
Main Works
Kim Seung Young
Sweep
2021
Kim Seung Young is a media artist who has been actively involved in sculpture and installation elements, reflecting on human existence through his work. In his early career, he mainly worked on creating spaces for meditation and contemplation using nature as subject matter. He has recently been working on site-specific installations, videos, and sound works employing subjects such as memory, life, communication, and healing.
Sweep (2021) is a video featuring a monk sweeping with a broom at dawn at Jingwansa Temple, located at the foot of Bukhansan Mountain. Every morning, the monk sweeps the empty front yard with a broom as tall as himself. One of the formal characteristics of Kim’s work is ‘repetition’: The monk’s sweeping, which is repeated at a certain interval and speed, represents the practice of emptying oneself and allows the viewer to take time for thought and reflection. In the early morning when we feel the cold air, the sound of the monk’s sweeping and birds stimulate the sense of hearing and calm the mind.
Park Sang Hwa
Inner dream -Apartment
2010
Park Sanghwa is a first-generation video artist from the Gwangju and Jeonnam region. Since the mid-1990s, he has focused on the potential of video art and has expanded the scope of his art to experiments with a wide variety of media including video sculpture, installation, and convergence projects. In his early works, Park mainly addressed grand discourse such as issues of civilization and human desire, but since the mid-2000s, he has created fantastic and lyrical images adopting subject matter secured from his everyday life and experiences.
Inner Dream-Apartment (2010) is a work that mixes images from nature with a residential apartment. This work is a representation of an imaginary world that does not exist in reality using individual experiences and memories of what happens inside and outside the apartment as subject matter. The apartment-shaped structure looks banal, but the video shown between the windows unfolds a varied world including utopian scenes beyond reality. Water pouring like a waterfall, flower petals fluttering, and serenely sailing clouds represent the utopia of modern urbanites who long for nature, engendering a space for relaxation and reflection.
Joanna Raijkowska
My Father Never Touched Me Like That
2014
Joanna Raijkowska is an artist based in Warsaw, Poland. The artist works across a variety of genres including urban architecture projects, underwater sculpture, video, media, and photography. She has presented works in which viewers are allowed to participate in public spaces, encompassing all entities, such as organic and inorganic substances, and their relationships.
My Father Never Touched Me Like That (2014) is a video that repeatedly shows the artist and her father putting their heads together and stroking each other's faces. Her father, who escaped from the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II, ignored his family during her childhood and did not stay by her mother's side even in her last moments. Although some resentment toward her father remains in her mind, the image of the father and daughter stroking each other's faces with their eyes closed gives a glimpse of the artist’s heart and her desire to heal their fractured relationship. Through her work, the artist touches upon the wounds of the past that we all carry, unveiling the layers of memories beneath the surface.
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