By Seo Dong-shin
Staff Reporter
This year offers a rare pilgrimage for art lovers, as major European art events will open throughout June, coinciding with one another.
The 52nd edition of the Venice Biennale in Italy will take place from June 10 through Nov. 21; Art Basel, an annual international art fair in Switzerland, will kick off on June 13 to continue until June 17; Documenta in Kassel, Germany, which takes place every five years, will open on June 16 along with Sculpture Projects Muenster 07, another German art event mounted every ten years since 1977. So it will be another 10 years before an opportunity to enjoy all these events in one summer presents itself again.
As far as Europe may be away from South Korea geographically, the distance will not be felt so strongly on the art scene. Several Korean tour companies are offering guided package tour programs for students and those interested in art to experience these upcoming art events. And many Korean artists and galleries will be present in some corners of those European venues throughout this summer.
This year's Venice Biennale will be held under the theme ``Think With the Senses - Feel With the Mind: Art in the Present Tense.'' Among 96 artists featured in the main show of the biennale, Asian artists are only from China, India and Japan.
But South Korea is one of the 77 countries that will have an individual pavilion. Located inside the Giardini di Castello, a public garden and exhibition venue, the Korean pavilion presents artist Lee Hyung-koo's solo exhibition ``The Homo Species.''
It was an unprecedented decision to feature just one artist at the pavilion, especially a young one like Lee, who was born in 1969. In consideration of the relatively small space of about 200 square meters, Ahn So-yeon, chief curator of the Leeum Samsung Museum of Art and commissioner for the Korean pavilion, picked up Lee to break away from the convention and showcase a promising new face instead of established artists.
Lee, who graduated from Hongik University in Seoul and Yale University in the United States, has garnered much attention since starting out on the local art scene here in 2002.
His 2004 exhibition ``The Objectuals'' showed the artist's obsessive interest in the human body, distorting and amplifying its parts. Last year's exhibition ``The Animatus'' presented a series of fossil sculptures of popular cartoon characters including Bugs Bunny and Donald Duck - solemnly bearing titles such as ``Lepus Animatus'' and ``Anas Animatus.''
During his study in the United States, Lee started to produce tools to transform body parts, in an attempt to overcome his inferiority complex as an Asian man. The artist's interest in the body is explored through his works not only from the aspect of beauty, but also from that of physiognomy. The artworks touch on the complex of Koreans, who ``are left in the hinterland of culture despite economic development in this global era,'' the organizers explain.
Meanwhile, Kukje Gallery in Seoul has co-funded a new work by American video artist Bill Viola for the biennale, along with other international galleries Haunch of Venison and James Cohan Gallery. Titled ``Ocean Without a Shore,'' the work will be screened at Campo San Galo near Piazza of San Marco in Venice from June 10 to Nov. 24.