Presentation 1: Modernism and the Avant-Garde in Korea
Presenter: Dr Song Mi Sook, President of the Association of East Asian Art and Culture
Thu, 5 May. 10:30am - 11:10am
Korea has undergone half a century of modernisation, westernisation, and change since 1945 after it gained independence from colonial rule. This modernisation has largely been a "catching-up" process of sorts, in which Korea's model of development and modernity cuts across internal cultural differences and crosses international borders. Over the past 50 years the visual arts has also been shaped by similar interactions. However, the assimilation of modernism into the arts has not delivered sustained growth, nor has this "catching-up process" been harmonious. The experience of modernity and the cultural production of modernism claims to be normative and universal (and by extension, international), but in reality it entails a paradoxical unity of struggle and contradiction, and ambiguity and anguish. Keeping this idea in mind, Professor Song will examine the history, nature and characteristics of modernism in Korea.
Dr Song Mi Sook is the Founder and President of the Association of East Asian Art and Culture. Art History Professor of Emeritus, Sungshin Women's University. She has a PhD from Pennsylvania State University, USA. She was the founder and second President of The Association of Western Art History in Korea in 1991 and 1993. She also served as the Deputy Director of the Samsung Museum of Modern Art (now Samsung LEEUM) from 1995 to 1999. She was previously Commissioner for the Korean Pavilion in the 1999 48th Venice Biennale (in which the selected artist, Lee Bul, was awarded a special prize) and was General Artistic Director for the inaugural exhibition of Media_City Seoul, Between 0 and 1 in 2000.
Presentation 2: New Form and Movement in the 1980s: Minjung Art
Presenter: Professor Youn Bum Mo of Kyungwon University
Thu, 5 May. 11:10am - 11:50am
Under the military dictatorship of the 1980s in Korea, progressive artists developed a new art movement which has become notable in the history of world art. This was a combination of various progressive movements such as human rights, country reunification, together with labour, feminist and environmental activism, combined with anti-conservative and anti-foreign societal impulses. New attention was given to genres such as engraving, photography and muralism. This "people's art movement" of the 1980s was created by artists who felt strongly about keeping in step in with the people. It was Minjung Art that established what is now known as contemporary art in Korea today.
Professor Youn Bum Mo is an art critic, poet, and professor of art history at Kyungwon University in Korea. Born in Cheonan, Korea, he received a PhD in art history at Dongguk University, Korea. He has been a visiting scholar at University of South Florida in Florida, USA, and has served as the President at the Society of Modern Art History of Korea, and a Director at the Seoul Art Center.
Presentation 3: Public Art in Korea since 1988
Presenter: Professor Kim Young Ho of Chung-Ang University
Thu, 5 May. 2:00pm - 2:40pm
Professor Kim discusses the history and development of societal and institutional attitudes toward public art in Korea since the 1980s. In Korea, a "one percent law" policy was introduced in the 1980s from France and the USA. An institutional recommendation that proposes that a portion of construction budgets be used for "artistic ornamentation," it helped change the visual environment of the city and heighten interest in the public value of art. However, when the public art started to be included in the definition of the "artistic ornamentation" of a building, problems arose. Professor Kim elaborates on the situation and the proposed solutions, including the introduction of a selective funding system and the establishment of a special Board.
Professor Kim Young Ho is an art historian, art critic and a professor at Chung-Ang University, Korea. He has a doctorate in art history from the University Paris I (Panthon-Sorbonne). Previously he was commissioner of the 24th Sao Paulo Biennale, a commissioner of the 2010 Moon Shin International Sculpture Symposium, and currently serves as a trustee of the Gwangju Biennale.
Presentation 4: Photography is a Retarded Art
Presenter: Professor Lee Young June, Kaywon School of Art and Design
Thu, 5 May. 2:40pm - 3:20pm
This presentation is intended to provoke radical doubts about some assumptions about photography as art which have hitherto been taken for granted. The term "retardation" is a harsh remark, considering the brilliant progress made by photography in the realm of institutional art. Photography appears to have an illuminating role, namely, that of making invisible things visible, however, Professor Lee claims that "photography is a blind power". In this presentation, he will discuss how the retardation of photography is a result of what he calls a "blindness to this blindness".
Critic and writer Lee Young June's research interests are in photography and machinery sites. His publications include Machine Critic, and Gaze of the Critic: Twenty Thoughts on Photography. He has recently completed a one-month journey on board one of the world's biggest container ships, and is preparing a book about this experience.
Presentation 5: Contemporary Korean Activist and Feminist Art
Presenter: Dr. Kim Hong Hee, Former Director of the Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art
Fri, 6 May, 1:10pm - 1:50pm
Dr. Kim Hong Hee discusses the activist and feminist practices of women artists from the post-1950s era to the present day. Taking a chronological approach, she diagnoses the present status, limitations and potential of contemporary Korean women's art and examines how artists handle confrontation and reconciliation within mainstream art establishments and the meaning behind their aesthetic and political interventions. She will speak on how previously taboo feminine subjects and forms were revived with the modernisation of the 1970s, how feminist art groups appeared in the 1980s as an offshoot of Minjung art movement and how a new generation of women artists in the 1990s used postmodern approaches to explore issues of the body, identity, and gender politics.
Dr. Kim Hong Hee is an art historian, curator, and critic and her main field of research is video and feminist art. Dr. Kim was the Director of Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art in Gyeonggi Province, Korea 2006-2010, and the Director of SSamzie Space, Seoul, Korea 1998-2006. She was also the Artistic Director of the 2006 Gwangju Biennale, the Commissioner of the Korean Pavilion for the 2003 Venice Biennale, and the Commissioner of the 2000 Gwangju Biennale. Dr Kim received an M.A. from Concordia University, Canada, and a Ph.D. in art history from Hong-Ik University.
Presentation 6: Art and Politics in Contemporary Korean Art
Presenter: Professor Lee Young Wook of Jeonju University
Fri, 6 May. 1:50pm - 2:30pm
This presentation introduces some contemporary Korean artists called "Post-Minjung", who have emerged since the late 1990s and become known for expressing acute political sensibilities in their work. Professor Lee will discuss these artists' respective approaches to the relation between art and politics. Their main concern is about how art can be critical, in the context of their memories of Minjung (or people's) art of the 1980s and the present realities of a post-industrial, consumerist Korean society. Artists like Park Chan-kyung, Bea Young-hwan, Flying city, Kho Seung-wook, Jo Seup, and Song Sang-hee make diverse works which explore problems of historical traumas and memories, show sympathy with subjects who have become marginalised through the process of rapid growth, and discuss the disciplined body and its overcoming vitalities, as well as the architectural imaginations of urban realities.
Professor Lee Young Wook is an art critic, art theorist and professor at Jeonju University. He began his career within the context of the Minjung Art Movement of 1980s. In 1999, he co-founded Alternative Space Pool, and has also served as committee member of the non-profit organisation Cultural Action. Professor Lee has published several essays on cultural politics, avant-garde art, post-colonialism and public art. He is also the translator of art and theory works into Korean. |
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