Geumgang Contemporary Art Festival—Inaugural Outdoor Exhibition, Brochure, 1980, MMCA Art Research Center Collection
Korean Nature Artists' Association·YATOO
* Source: Multilingual Glossary of Korean Art. Korea Arts Management Service
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Geumgang Contemporary Art Festival
The Geumgang Contemporary Art Festival was a regional art festival based in the Chungcheongnam-do Province. Its inaugural exhibition was held outdoors on Geumgang Sand Beach in Gongju from November 16 through 22 in 1980, and the festival was held once more indoors at the Daejeon Cultural Center from April 18 to 30 in 1981. Gongju native Rim Dongsik and Daejeon native Hong Myeongseop played leading roles in the festival. Although some Seoul-based artists took part in the festival, most participating artists from 1978 through 1980 were graduates from art universities in Chungcheongnam-do, including Mokwon University, Hannam University, and Kongju National University. Participating artists included Kang Huisun, Kwak Namsin, Ko Seunghyeon, Kim Yong-Ik, Kim Yeongho, Park Ingyu, Shin Dongguk, An Chiin, Oh Jayeong, Yu Geunyeong, Yu Dongjo, Yu Byeongho, Lee Kunyong, Lee Yungu, Lee Euncheol, Lee Jonghyeop, Rim Dongsik, Jeong Gilho, Jeong Deokyeong, Jung Jangjig, Jo Seonga, Ji Seokcheol, Heo Jingwon, and Hong Myeongseop. The Geumgang Contemporary Art Festival was one of several contemporary art festivals held in Daegu, Seoul, Gwangju, and other cities in between the mid-1970s and the early 1980s. The festival aimed to resist the insular nature of local art scenes, discover new artists, and revitalize local art communities. According to its founding statement, the Geumgang Contemporary Art Festival uses the river name “Geumgang” instead of a city name because it is an art event for artists from the Gongju and Daejeon regions and it symbolizes “the spirit of artists who are searching for precious and elevated concepts, such as beauty, elegance, purity, simplicity, lucidness, and brightness and who study them with a scholarly attitude.” The festival also encouraged “young artists in their twenties and thirties who can actively present post-abstract art, installations, and performance art” from among those with connections to the Geumgang regions (born, raised, and working) to participate. A distinctive feature of the Geumgang Contemporary Art Festival is that it started with the premise of featuring outdoor works. At the third Daegu Contemporary Art Festival, participating artists presented performance art on the Nakdonggang River, but they used the outdoors as a mere venue for presenting their works. In contrast, as its subtitle “Outdoor Field Exhibition” suggests, the Geumgang Contemporary Art Festival considered the outdoor field itself as the most important element of art. Rim Dongsik, who played a crucial role in the founding of the festival, along with Ko Seunghyeon, Heo Jingwon, and Kang Huisun, established the YATOO outdoor field art research society in 1981. It studied outdoor art through fresh contact with nature and served as the seedbed of the birth of Nature Art in South Korea.
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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.
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