Park Hyunki, Untitled, 1986, TV, stone, videotape, 207×51×46cm. MMCA collection
Media art
* Source: Multilingual Glossary of Korean Art. Korea Arts Management Service
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Video art
A genre of modern art that uses video as a medium. After Paik Nam June created the first works of video art in 1963, the genre spread internationally. Video art explored new artistic possibilities using advanced technology and embodied a rejection of conventional art media. Video art was quick to drawn critical attention because of the relative immediacy that underlies the creation and display of such works, and the efficiency of the medium as means to portray and interlink a large number of images. Following Paik Nam June ’s early experiments with TV monitor installations in the 1960s, in the 1970s new forms of work emerged that combined video and performance art.
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Media Theory Research Society
The Media Theory Research Society (Maeche iron yeonguhoe, MTRS) was an art organization active from 1992 to 1994 with artists from the Busan area as central figures. It mainly presented media art and installation work using a variety of mediums, hosted academic events to study media aesthetics, and attempted the publication of a specialized art magazine Mook. The origin of the MTRS lied in the Visual Language Research Society that held a symposium on “Diagnosis of Korean Contemporary Art” from January through March in 1992 by inviting critics Choe Beom and Baek Jisuk. The MTRS was founded in April 1992 by its first president Jeon Changrae, Park Eunguk, who was the head of the Visual Language Research Society, and Kim Jonghwa, the editor-in-chief of the magazine Art & Criticism (Misulgwa bipyeong). Its key members include Sim Junseop, Lee Sangjin, Kim Yeonghee, Jo Sunok, Chae Seunghui, Lee Jungja, Lee Jeonghui, Park Changwon, Yim Yeongsil, Park Bongrae, Choe Yunjeong, Kim Gapsu, and Kang Juwan. In 1993 and 1994, the MTRS organized the second and third Korean Contemporary Art symposiums to provide an opportunity to discuss academic presentations, theoretical research, and the development of art in Busan. In July 1993, it prepared the preliminary issue of the Art & Criticism magazine as an attempt to launch the first art magazine in Busan, but it was never officially published. The MTRS was a project-type group in which artists participated according to exhibition themes. Among its special exhibitions is Scene 051: The Dream of a Colorful City held in 1992 at Dada Gallery in Busan. It also participated in group exhibitions in Seoul, including Art and Reflection (Kumho Museum of Art, 1992) curated by Park Chan-kyong and Baek Jisuk and FRONT DMZ (Seoul Museum of Art, 1993) hosted by the Demilitarized Zone Arts and Cultural Movement Council. The activities of the MTRS in the early 1990s brought intensive attention to media art for the first time in the history of art in Busan and directly impacted the activities of Busan media art small groups that began to emerge in the late 1990s. These small groups include DigiArt-Animation Studio (founded in 1995), MEDIUM (founded in 1998), PIXEL (founded in 1998), INOUT (founded in 1999), format (founded in 1999), and C.O.D.E. (founded in 1999).
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Technology art
The convergence of, or the attempts to fuse, art and science, which particularly arose as advances in scientific technology after World War II inspired artistic creation. Cybernetics and system theory, based on idealist thinking that emerged in the 1960s, and held that “scientific technology will accelerate human progress”, greatly influenced the creation of art based on modern technology. Later, this interest would expand into the realms of internet art, laser art, and holographic art. Toward the later 1970s, technological approaches to art merged with popular art, which led to the development of video games, cyberpunk novels, techno music, and deconstructionist graphic design. In Korea, Kang Kukjin’s 1967 work combining neon and stainless steel and AG group’s Kwak Hoon’s optical installation using electronics in his solo exhibition at Shinmoon Center in 1968 are representative works of early Korean digital art. In 1976, Kim Soungui videotaped his performance during his stay in Paris, and Park Hyunki and Lee Kangso submitted digital technology works to the Daegu Contemporary Art Festival in the mid-1970s.
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Art Center Nabi
Art Center Nabi opened in December 2000 in Jongno-gu, Seoul as an art museum specializing in digital and media art. It was modeled after the Walker Hill Art Center. The center aims to explore the possibility of new art within the convergence of art, science and technology, and media, as well as to introduce and foster creative work activities. Major activities include the Nabi Hackathon program, which combines intensive hi-tec design ‘hackathon’ culture and creative workshops, the Nabi Lab program that seeks to exchange and collaborate art with various fields such as robotics, artificial intelligence, and data science, and the Nabi Edu program that fosters digital content creation. It has also conducted the Nabi artist residency program that supports creative space and exhibition by selecting one or two domestic and foreign artists every year. To introduce the latest media art to the public, the center holds the Urban Screen exhibition to install audio visual works in the SK office.
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1993 Whitney Biennial in Seoul
An exhibition held from July 31 to September 8, 1993 at the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea (now MMCA), which was a travelling show of the New York, Whitney Biennial. The Seoul exhibition was the first Whitney Biennial exhibition to be held outside of the United States. The Whitney Biennial, which was held from March 4 to June 20, 1993 at the Whitney Museum of American Art, chose the topic of “cultural diversity” and focused on art based on categories of identity—race, culture, gender, and region. In terms of the different types of art, the exhibition included numerous installations, as well as video and film. The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art stated that they hosted the Whitney Biennial to “explore a new possibility of expression for art,” because the exhibition “expressed the contradictions, discord, and prejudices of modern American society from a very sincere and forward-looking perspective.” However, the Seoul and New York exhibitions were slightly different in their construction. The New York exhibition featured 82 artists and 150 works of art, while the Korean exhibition featured 61 artists and 107 works of art. In consideration of transportation costs and difficulties, the larger artworks of Charles Ray and Gary Hill were replaced with other artworks, and the work of artists such as Nan Goldin and Cindy Sherman was also excluded based on the judgment of the museum concerning “Korean sensibilities,” which caused a controversy over censorship. The shocking style and themes displayed within the artworks had a significant impact on Korean art.
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Seoul in Media
Seoul in Media was a special exhibition series held three times by the Seoul Museum of Art from 1996 through 1999 at the Memorial Hall for the 600th Anniversary of the Capital Seoul (present-day Gyeonghuigung Palace site). The first edition Seoul in Media: 1988–2002, which was held from October 7 through 20, 1996, was intended to reflect and discover new images of Seoul during the period from the Seoul Olympics to the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup. A total of twenty-seven Korean artists, including Hong Suncheol, Kim Jangsup, and Lee Kangwoo, exhibited their works in various forms such as video, photography, animation, and installation works. Some of these works were screened on more than a dozen of large electronic news boards throughout Seoul. From October 16 through November 4, 1998, Seoul in Media: Food, Clothing, Shelter was held. The invited curator Lee Youngchul organized an exhibition that allowed open interpretations by using an unrestrained space design. Lee’s curation was favorably received. The four teams and fifty-four artists who gathered under the theme of “everydayness” used a wide variety of media and included many emerging artists, such as Kim Sora, Yang Haegue, Ham Yangah, Lim Minouk, and Jeong Hyeseung. The 1999 exhibition Seoul in Media: Lumia of Century was held from October 15 through November 3. With thirty-three artists participating, this edition consisted exclusively of media art based on the theme of “light,” including video, computer, photography, laser, and hologram. The exhibition space was designed by Min Sohn-joo, who was also a participating artist, and she created a space where visitors could interact with the displayed works. The Seoul in Media exhibition series in the second half of the 1990s exerted influence upon changes in the Korean art scene by providing a model for exhibition planning and curatorial rules, raising interest in media art, and serving as a platform for emerging artists. Since 2000, the Seoul in Media has been held every two years in the format of an expanded international biennale Media City Seoul (renamed Seoul Mediacity Biennale in 2014).
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