Winter, Open-Air Art Show at Daesung-ri by 31 Artists, Poster, 1981, MMCA Art Reaserch Center Collection
Baggat Art Research Society
* Source: Multilingual Glossary of Korean Art. Korea Arts Management Service
Related
-
Korean Nature Artists' Association·YATOO
Korean Nature Artists' Association·YATOO is an organization formed by artists based in Gongju city and the Geumgang River region in the 1980s with Nature Art as their slogan. Its main members include Rim Dongsik, Ko Seunghyun, Kang Huijung, Lee Eungu, Hong Oh-bong, Mun Jeong-gyu, Koh Hyeonhui, Kim Haesim, Jung Jangjig, and Lee Jonghyup. In 1980, the first Geumgang Contemporary Art Festival was held by the Geumgang River in Gongju-si, Chungcheongnam-do Province. In June 1981, a research group known as the YATOO Outdoor Field Art Research Society was founded under the leadership of Rim Dongsik. YATOO means “projecting the artist’s thoughts into nature.” Starting in 1983, the members of YATOO infused the concept of Nature Art into the results of their creative activities based on the encounter between humans and nature. Later, they renamed the organization as Nature Art Research Association · YATOO and began actively embarking on a path to Ecological Art that foregrounded questions of environment and ecology through installations, performances, videos, and photographic materials. Around this time, Rim left the organization due to disagreement with his colleagues. In 1995, the remaining members, such as Ko Seunghyun and Lee Eungu, renamed the organization The Korean Nature Artists’ Association · YATOO, which is still active in natural spaces near Geumgang River and Yeonmisan Mountain in Gongju. Since 1991, it has hosted the International Nature Art Exhibition, and since 2004, it has organized the Geumgang Nature Art Biennale.
-
DAMU Group
DAMU Group, an art group active from 1980 to 1983, was founded based on the recognition of the 1970s as a period of juxtaposition between the real and the illusionary. It curated exhibitions on the theme of what is and what is visible in an effort to find a turning point for a new mode of existence different from such juxtaposition. Accordingly, the group experimented with new art forms that were different from existing ones and presented works and exhibitions aimed at practicing contemporary ideas and spirit. Its inaugural exhibition The First Exhibition of Damu Group was held on November 6, 1980 at the Art Center of the Korean Culture and Arts Foundation Art Center. Seven artists participated in the exhibition including Kim Jeongsik, Kim Hakyeon, Lee Heungduk, Yim Chungjae, Jeong Jinseok, Choe Hyeonsu, and Hong Seonwung, all of whom were graduates from Chung-Ang University. At the time, they rejected the monochromatic painting style and criticized the uniform formalism and art system of the 1970s as a barrier to overcome. DAMU Group viewed things as existing in a “complementary relationship” with other things and argued that the true nature of things is revealed in their organic relationship. In this light, the title of its founding manifesto was announced as “The Complementary Relationship of Things.” Since a single thing or a concrete form cannot define its true nature, the group thought that how things interact with each other should be explored to understand them. Thus, the artists of the group produced works by utilizing photographs of human figures and geometric forms, installing two or more objets, or adding scratches on the copies of real objects. After its inaugural exhibition, the group organized another exhibition Winter, Open-Air Art Show at Daesung-ri by 31 Artists in January 1981 at Hwarangpo on the banks of the Bukhangang River in Daeseong-ri, Gapyeong-gun, Gyeonggi-do Province. In July 1981, it held its second group exhibition at the Art Center, and in March 1982 it presented The Exhibition of Conversive Art. In August of the same year, the group held the exhibition The Straight Forwardness of Consciousness, the Echo, in which small groups Jeongae, Hoengdan, and TA-RA as well as the DAMU Group participated. After the third group exhibition What Is and What Is Visible held in August 1983 at the Art Center, the DAMU Group’s activities ceased because its members joined several Minjung art groups or went abroad to study and their ideas about art’s social engagement slightly differed.
-
Baggat Daeseongri Exhibition
The Baggat Daeseongri Exhibition refers to a series of exhibitions entitled Winter, Open-Air Art Show at Daesung-ri held by the Baggat Art Group from 1981 to 1992 around Daesung-ri, Bukhan River. After the Daesung-ri exhibition, the Baggat Art Group changed the exhibition title several times: Baggat Art Daeseongri from 1996 to 2002, Baggat--Bukhan River from 2003 to 2004, and Baggat--Jara Island after 2005. The exhibitions emphasized “the distinct characteristics of the open natural area” of the Bukhan River and promoted “voluntary audience participation” and “eco-friendly and community-driven art in which nature and humanity can coexist.”
Find More
-
Nature Art
Nature art refers to artistic activities where artists use natural objects or become a part of nature preferably in a desolate natural setting. The members of the YATOO Outdoor Field Art Research Association [Yaoe hyeonjang misul yeonguhoe; YATOO] founded in 1981 refused to present (exhibit) their works indoors and instead presented them in nature, coining the term “nature art” amongst themselves. The origins of nature art can be traced back to the Korean Young Artists’ Association’s thirty outdoor installations in 1976 at Kkotji Beach in Anmyeondo Island and in Gwangreung Forest in Gyeonggi-do Province. Rather than creating works indoors and installing them outdoors, they presented works that used nature as subject matter and were installed in nature. Among the participating artists were Chung Kwanmo, Kim Kwangwoo, Noh Jaeseung, and Rim Dongsik. In the beach and forest, they tried to incorporate the sky, sun, moon, stars, darkness, light, air, water, horizon, sand, tree, forest, fallen leaves, soil, and earth in their original state into their works. Their activities were short-lived and led to the Geumgang Contemporary Art Festival held by Rim Dongsik and Hong Myeongseop in 1980 by the Geumgang River. However, the festival also ended with the first edition. Since 1981, the YATOO artists, including Rim Dongsik, Ko Seunghyun, Lee Eungu, Heo Gang, and Hur Jinkwon, became active around the Geumgang River, inheriting the practice of outdoor installation and establishing it as a mode of artistic expression. They staged various works of performance art in nature with their bare bodies or created installations using natural objects available in nature. Initially, they installed man-made objects such as plastic and balloons in nature, and then gradually used stones, sand, grasses, tree branches, fallen leaves, shells, conches, and even animal feces that they found in nature. Over time, their oeuvres have come to include the process of decomposition in nature.
-
Installation
In a general sense, the term “installation” refers to the display or arrangement of artwork within an exhibition. In a stricter sense, the term “installation” can also refer to an art work specifically based in its wider display environment. Such installation art often attempts to enable the audience to become part of the new environment that the work creates. In this circumstance, the artwork becomes defined not only by its space, but also in terms of the relationship between the work, space and the audience.
Sign Up for Email Updates
