Seeping In-Chung Seoyoung and Choi Jeonghwa, Leaflet. Image provided by Kim Daljin Art Research and Consulting
Art Space Pool
* Source: Multilingual Glossary of Korean Art. Korea Arts Management Service
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Post-Minjung art
A Korean artistic movement characterized by participation, which emerged following the decline of Minjung Art in the 1980s. The term and concept were particularly discussed in light of the attempts toward a critical restoration of Minjung Art during the late 1990s. Notable examples of the exponents of this concern include; Art groups such as the Seongnam Project, flyingCity, and Mixrice; and artists such as Park Chan-kyong, Cho Seub, Koh Seungwook, and Lim Minouk. These Post-Minjung artists criticized the theory-based reconstruction of political meaning within artistic production, use of class-based perspectives, and the Modernist anti-dialectic abandonment that characterized Minjung art. The movement adopted the pluralist rhetoric of the Western art community that was developed after the 1960s concerning conceptual art, site-specificity and institutional critique, identity politics, and installation practice. Post-Minjung artists also speculated on the use of new modes of realism that responded to the changed social, political, and economic conditions of Korea after the 1990s. Due to the influence of these artists, there has been substantial debate on whether all participatory art in 21st century Korea should be directly linked to the tradition of Minjung Art.
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Minjung Art
An artistic movement that came to prominence alongside Korea’s democratization movement in the 1980s. Minjung artists often sought to critically portray the violent repression and corruption of the military dictatorship, to represent the experiences of laborers and farmers, and to achieve social change through art. In contrast to abstraction, which constituted the mainstream of 1970s art in Korea, Minjung Art is notable for the use of representational and figurative forms. One possible point of origin for Minjung Art is Oh Yoon’s work in the Reality Group (Hyeonsil dongin). The group was formed in 1969 by Kim Ji-ha, Oh Yoon, and Lim Se-taek. A variety of Minjung art groups were established, including the Reality and Utterance (Hyunsilgwa bareon) in 1979 by Kim Jungheun, Oh Yoon, Joo Jae-hwan, art critic Sung Wan-kyung, and Choi Min, the Gwangju Freedom Artist Association (Gwangju jayu misulin hyeopuihoe) in 1979 by Hong Sungdam and Choi Youl, the Imsulnyeon (The Year Imsul) in 1982, and the Dureong in 1983. These groups all commonly critiqued Western capitalism. In terms of form, Minjung artists adopted traditional and ethnic folk modes of expression using diverse media such as collage, printmaking, oil painting, and photography. Following the 15 Years of Korean Minjoong Arts: 1980-1994 Exhibition at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Minjung Art became an accepted part of Korean art history. Overseas, Minjung Art has also become a recognized term that describes this genre and its unique focus on the political and social history of Korea.
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Alternative space
A non-profit exhibition space, intended to be free from the elitist authoritarianism and rigid traditionalism of art museums, and the naked commercialism of sales galleries. Numerous alternative spaces emerged in Korea between the 1990s and the early 2000s and contributed to the development of a vibrant national contemporary scene that supported diverse experimental innovative approaches to art making. The number of spaces disappeared drastically around 2010 as many closed due to financial difficulties, or lost their initial focus on experimentation and became bureaucratically institutionalized. Spaces that have appeared since 2010 and the increased institutionalization of the original wave of alternative spaces are called “neo-spaces” for purposes of distinction.
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Alternative Space LOOP
An exhibition space established in February 6, 1999 by Suh Jinsuk. A non-profit exhibition space located near Hongik University in Seoul, LOOP was the first alternative space in Korea. It was established to support and publicize experimental artists and art work as well as to engage in mutual exchange with overseas artists and other alternative spaces. The inaugural exhibition was Fake Flower Kim Eunyoung Guest Exhibition. LOOP moved to a larger building in November 2005, and it held Since 1999, a showcase of the diverse currents of Korean contemporary art from the late 1990s to the present day. Since 2004, curators active in Asia have organized Move on Asia, where they select individual themes and showcase fitting moving images accordingly. In 2019, it became a non-profit culture and arts organization.
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Project Space SARUBIA
A non-profit exhibition space that opened in October 20, 1999 in Insa-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul. The name derived from the coffee shop which existed at the same location before it was transformed into an exhibition space. The exhibition space supported a wide range of experimental culture including architecture and music, in addition to contemporary art. The inaugural exhibition, Journal of Daydreams was a solo exhibition by Ham Jin. The SARUBIA organizers aimed to select artists who attempt to make use of the specific spatial characteristics of the exhibition space, then provide them with a month’s time for installation work in order to produce a site-specific piece. SARUBIA registered as an art corporation in 2007, and it moved to Jongno-gu, Changseong-dong in 2011. In 2014, the art space shifted to a membership system, operating solely on donations, and in 2015, it became a non-profit organization.
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