ART IN KOREA:
By: Isabella Rodríguez López.
Contemporary art comprises the art forms of our era, produced and interpreted
as a reflection of today's society, that is, originating from the 20th century. But,
this is complex to understand as it is a concept that is difficult to limit as they
vary enormously depending on who is asked or questioned, to the point that for
many people, there is not really a distinction between modern art and
contemporary art.
But today I want to focus on the Korean representatives of this broad and
complicated category.
Lee Bul: “We dream of perfect perfection. We try to create a vision without
vulnerability ”
Lee was born on January 25, 1964 in Yeongju, Gyeongsangbuk-do, South
Korea. Raised by politically active parents, Lee witnessed a radical change in
society from her margins, where she and her family were repeatedly uprooted
and relocated, her works are designed from that socio-political context and her
own personal experiences.
She is one of the most versatile artists of her generation; her work ranges from
drawing to painting, sculpture and performance. Her themes explore systems,
anatomy, structure, but also emotions and human behaviour, light and darkness,
the real and the surreal. Their work is both organic and mechanical, a metaphor
for our interactions with technology and our need to transcend mortality. Its
viewers are lost in those metaphors that represent a society of the 20th century,
which is increasingly dependent on technology.
Lee also collaborated with the prestigious Dior fashion house for the Miss Dior
exhibition in 2013, as she collaborated with her vision of the Lady Dior
handbag, made with Plexiglas mirrors, also important national and international
galleries and museums have exhibited her work, such as the Art Sonje Center in
Seoul, the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, the Samsung Art
Museum in Seoul, the National Gallery of Victoria in Mel Bourne, the Venice
Biennale, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Marseille and many others.
Sun mu: (This is not their real name, it is a nickname as they fear possible
reprisals that the North Korean government may have against them. )
Sun Mu was born in North Korea and trained by the North Korean Army as a
propaganda artist in the 1990s. He later studied art at university.
It is known for its style, socialist realism, which is compared to North Korean
propaganda, and in some cases was even confused with the latter. Because of
this, one of his portraits of Kim Il Sung was removed from a Busan Biennial to
avoid trouble exhibiting pro-communist art. This is probably because he was
first trained by the North Korean Navy as an artist and later studied art as such
in South Korea.
Sun himself and art critics have noticed that his images are full of political
satire; for example, they portray North Korean leaders dressed in Western
clothes. Her iconic work is the "Happy Children" series of paintings, which
show North Korean children showing the uniform forced smile that Sun says
she was taught at school in North Korea.
He doesn't just want to make a critique, but he paints for hope and wants to turn
around the propaganda art he did when he lived in the North.
Since the 2000s he has exhibited in galleries in South Korea, Germany, the
United States, and even China. There is also a documentary dedicated to him, I
am Sun Mu, directed by Adam Sjöberg, which was screened in 2015. Currently,
it is not available to watch although it is listed on the Netflix platform.
