Korean Pavilion Addresses Asian Complex in Venice
By Seo Dong-shin
Staff Reporter
VENICE _ The annual art extravaganza began in this world-heritage canal city on Thursday, as hundreds of thousands of artists, gallerists, members of the press and other ``VIP'' art lovers flocked to the preview of the Venice Biennale.
The exhibition opens to the public on June 10. But free leaflets are being given away and free drinks poured into glasses in various corners of the entangled alleys around the city in a festive mood for the 52nd holding of the world's most celebrated art feast, despite the capricious weather swinging from heavy downpours to humid heat several times a day.
This year's South Korean pavilion tested the waters Thursday inside the green Giardini Park, where another 29 national pavilions are also located. Featured artist Lee Hyung-koo staged a performance Friday, coinciding with the official opening of his solo exhibition at the pavilion, titled ``The Homo Species.''
National pavilions are a kind of art Olympic squads put on show for boosting each country's artistic profile. But the pavilions tend to generate attention among viewers in proportion to each nation's prominence in other domains.
As the pavilions first opened to viewers on Thursday, those of the United States, France, the United Kingdom and Germany as well as the host Italy's were the center of attention, as people queued to enter them. The French pavilion especially won acclaim from critics and journalists alike for its impressive display of renowned artist Sophie Calle's 2007 work ``Take Care of Yourself,'' while the United Kingdom's attracted viewers with popular contemporary artist Tracey Emin's ``Borrowed Light.''
Located between the national pavilions of Germany and Japan, the South Korean pavilion initially received relatively lukewarm attention, not least due to its place in a back corner of the Giardini. But among those who came to have a look, the exhibition drew favorable responses.
Commissioner of the pavilion Ahn So-yeon, chief curator of Leeum Samsung Museum of Art in Seoul, chose Lee to represent the nation's art circles in about 200 square meters of space in the pavilion building, which was once used as the park's toilet. It is the first time that South Korea opted for a solo exhibition in its 12-year presence at the Giardini.
``(To hold a solo artist's exhibition) is our first attempt since we started national pavilion here in 1995,'' Ahn said during a press conference here. ``While Lee is a relatively new face who started out just five years ago, I believe his clear idea and the theme, related to universally contemporary issues such as identity and physical transformation, best carry South Korea's cultural characteristics as well as his individual sentiment.''
Lee put together the essence from his two previous solo exhibitions held in South Korea _ ``The Objectuals'' in 2004 and ``The Animatus'' in 2006. ``The Objectuals'' series focus on visual enlargement or transformation of human body parts through devices such as shooter glasses and plastic bottles, while ``The Animatus'' series present fossil sculptures of virtual cartoon characters from Walt Disney animations.
In the pavilion, for example, Tom is chasing Jerry in a black room _ both figures are presented only in pseudo-white bones, similar to dinosaurs in a natural history museum. In another room in a contrast white color, objects resembling plastic surgery tools are displayed to suggest the process of distorting, or sometimes amplifying, body parts.
"The Objectuals" series, which the artist conceived of while studying in the United States, shows Korea's dual attitude toward Western influence, Ahn said. An Asian man, having internalized the notion of male-superiority, is ``doomed to be frustrated when he comes face-to-face with his `bigger and stronger' Caucasian counterpart.''
``Korea has both an inferiority complex and a superior attitude toward Western culture,'' Ahn said. ``Koreans try to overcome this complex by acts of differentiation and refusal simultaneously carried out with those of imitation and acceptance. Lee's works speak very delicately on this sensitiveness.''
``Not limiting the theme to physical transformation, I also wanted to explore the borderline between the virtual and the real,'' Lee said of his Animatus series, with which he brings ``the virtual characters into three-dimension reality.'' ``Objects are differently perceived depending on subjects. Cartoon characters, whose eyes comically pop up and so on, are not so cute and funny when they are brought into reality.''
``I found it very interesting,'' said Hester Alberdingk Thijim, director of Amsterdam-based Akzo Nobel Art Foundation, who was looking around the exhibition on Thursday. ``I felt it was a soft criticism on about how we try to transform and change already existing bodies, with its references to plastic surgery. In that sense it also fits very well with this year's biennale theme, `Think with the senses _ feel with the mind.'''
While some are already pinning hopes on the possibility of Lee's winning a special prize at the biennale, whether the artist will get recognition from the jury remains yet to be seen. The biennale jury will likely name the prizewinners in October this year. But the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement was already awarded to Mali-born artist Malick Sidibe.
Robert Storr, dean of the Yale School of Art, where Lee also studied, is serving as the president for this year's exhibition, the first U.S. art critic to take the job.