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Clockwise from top left, Turkish artist Hakan Onur's “My Mother Only Wants Me to be Happy,” Chinese artist Bai Yiluo's “Spring and Autumn” and Japanese artist Masaharu Sato's “Avatar11” at the “City_net Asia 2009” exhibition ongoing at the Seoul Museum of Art.
/ Courtesy of Seoul Museum of Art |
By Cathy Rose A. Garcia
Staff Reporter
The vibrant art scenes in Seoul, Tokyo and Beijing are already well known, but contemporary art from Istanbul is still shrouded with an air of mystery at least for the local audience.
Elusive samples of Turkish contemporary art are shown side-by-side with works by Korean, Japanese and Chinese artists at the City_net Asia 2009 exhibition at the Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA), downtown Seoul.
This biennial art event hopes to encourage people to discover the current state of the art scene in four cities. Over 100 pieces by 40 up-and-coming artists were gathered by curators from SeMA, Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, Today Art Museum in Beijing and Istanbul Modern in Turkey, and shown in four separate sections.
``The City_net Asia 2009 is designed as a venue to provide visitors a valuable opportunity to collectively establish their thoughts on the identity of Asia and to explore the present and future of Asian contemporary art that reflect particular social and cultural issues of their own countries,'' the organizers said.
The first section ``A Double-edged Sword,''' curated by SeMA's Cho Ju-hyun, revolves around matters of cultural identity, politics and globalization. The nine artists participating in the Korean section were all born between the 1960s and 1980s. Lee Byung-ho addresses the issue of ``lookism'' and people's desire to look younger in his moving sculpture ``Vanitas Bust,'' where a woman's wrinkled face slowly smoothens out. Kim Jong-ku uses steel powder, in reference to Korea's industrialization, to create calligraphy on the floor for ``Mobile Landscape,'' while Jung Yoon-suk questions his generation's memories in ``Video Killed the Radio Star,'' a video made of clips from news, films, TV, ads and cartoons.
Perhaps the most interesting section is the one on Turkish contemporary art, since it is relatively undiscovered here. ``Istanbul as the New Continent'' is organized by the Istanbul Modern chief curator Levent Calikoglu.
``In the 2000s Turkey ― and Istanbul ― were `rediscovered' by the rest of the world. However much they may occasionally suffer from Orientalist blinders, Europe's attitudes towards and its interest in this region down through the millennia have always been overwhelmingly lively and dynamic. Here in Istanbul one experiences an environment in which culture and tourism are intimately intertwined everywhere and in everything from nightlife to alleyways, from historical monuments to bathhouses, and from dignified museums to outre artistic endeavors,'' Calikoglu said, in an exhibition essay.
Video installations by Turkish artists Haluk Akakce, Guslsun Karamustafa and Sukran Moral offer insights into the exotic culture and modern society.
In the video ``Road to Tate Modern,'' Sener Ozmen and Erkan Ozgen play Cervantes' iconic characters Don Quixote and Sancho trying to find a way to London's famous museum through the mountains, which is obviously an impossible feat.
Tokyo offers one of the most diverse and exciting art scenes today, and the section ``Off the Center'' reflects this. There are striking wall murals by Yusuke Asai, colorful images by Yuichi Yokoyama, Masaharu Sato's series of animated portraits ``Avatar 11,'' and Takahiro Iwasaki's small sculpture made out of a pair of black socks.
``These artists ― mainly born after 1970 and witnesses to the weakening of Japan's economic development, the end of its success story, and its diversifying values ― have unique perspectives that don't accommodate transient trends. They remain detached and keep their own pace during the creative process. As such, perhaps they represent a new value that reflects Japanese society today,'' said Mori Art Museum curator Natsumi Araki.
Interest in Chinese contemporary art has grown significantly in recent years, and the fourth section ``Sedimentation'' features a new generation of artists.
``Although most artists of this generation appear indifferent to political and social issues, and often purposefully avoid such subject matter in their work, their art demonstrates strong personal style, even self-indulgence, eventually provoking insight into society,'' said Beijing's Today Art Museum deputy director Li Xiaoqian.
Bai Yiluo's ``Spring and Autumn,'' which is composed of a tree with rakes and hoes as branches, and a donkey covered in armor made of black-and-white ID photos.
In ``Why Should I Love You?,'' Chi Peng shows a cityscape of Beijing, except the landmark CCTV Tower has been turned into a Transformer robot. He addresses the questions of what the CCTV Tower, a symbol of China's modernity, really means for the Chinese people.
The City_net Asia 2009 exhibition runs through Nov. 22. Admission is 700 won. Visit http://seoulmoa.seoul.go.kr.
cathy@koreatimes.co.kr
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yistory@koreatimes.co.kr
