All aboard the groove train
YMAP’s “Madam Freedom.”
Media art to define Korean presence at Edinburgh fest
By Kwon Mee-yoo
The Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) is established as an annual celebration of imagination and creativity in the world of arts.
The Korean presence in the Scottish city in August will be highlighted by the late Paik Nam-june, the Korean-American avant-garde artist considered widely as the father of video art, and his artistic heirs, who continue to marry art and technology with indelible cool and flair.
Talking with reporters in Seoul, Jonathan Mills, the Australian director of the EIF, said that the interest in the Korean works is significant as the festival has been consistently trying to increase participation of non-European artists.
Over 3,000 artists from some 40 countries will participate in this year's event. Mills invited three Korean projects for this year’s event, themed as "Art and Technology,’’ aimed at exploring the evolving relationship between art and technology in an international context.
In 2011, the EIF went as far as to theme that year’s event as "To the Far West.’’ "Tempest,’’ a drama by veteran thespian Oh Tae-seok, "The Revenge of Prince Zi Dan’’ by EunMe Ahn Company and Chung Myung-whun’s Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra represented Korea that year.
"Think of the festival as a journey and my job is to think of the destination each year,’’ Mills said on Monday. The five previous festivals led by Mills, who took the helm in 2006, were aimed at highlighting regional significance. This year’s event represents a more cosmopolitan approach, he said.
Paik Nam-june’s “TV Buddha” are some of the Korean works to be presented in the upcoming Edinburgh International Festival. / Courtesy of Korea Arts Management Service
Nam June Paik Art Center in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, will present "Transmitted Live: Nam June Paik Resounds’’ exhibit at the Talbot Rice Gallery of the University of Edinburgh from Aug. 9-Oct. 19.
Mills described Paik as a philosopher, artist and prophet, and said the late artist was one of the first names that came to mind when he determined the festival’s theme to be art and technology.
"He is such a creative artist who predicted so clearly the way in which our culture becomes fascinated by the video image, photographic image and recorded image and sound,’’ he said.
Doubling as a celebration to Paik’'s first solo exhibit in Germany 50 years ago, the exhibit will feature about 70 of his works, from famous installations like ``TV Buddha’’ and "TV Cello’’ and media art like "Global Groove’’ and "Video Commune.’’ Four artists ― Takehisa Kosugi, Haroon Mirza, Kwon Byung-jun and Lee Ok-kyung ― will stage performance arts pieces that represent their interpretation of Paik’s works during the exhibit, aimed at showing Paik’s contemporary influence.
"If Paik had lived, he must have been delighted to be a part of such composite art festival,’’ Park Man-woo, director of the art institution said. ``We will present how Paik's visionary view of art still lives vividly.’’
Also at Edinburgh, media artist Kim Hyung-su is looking to experiment the physical boundaries of contemporary art in the context of time. His work, ``Media Skin,’’ will be set up in front the Usher Hall, one of the festival’s main venues. The multi-channel video work will play with the gap between reality and cognition, caused by technologies.
"What I do is basically managing time and space through media,’’ Kim said.
"I will show Edinburg's rationality, history and the present with new interface and content.’’
"Kim Hyung-su will add a very special dimension to the program, using archive and contemporary sources. We'll experience the festival in the city itself through Kim's Media Skin,’’ Mills said. "I can't wait for (Kim's) contribution to the history of the festival.’’
Another Korean project heading to Edinburgh this summer is ``Madam Freedom,’’ a media performance by Your Media Arts Project (YMAP). YMAP is led by Kim Hyo-jin, Kim Hyung-su's wife, and the two have been collaborating on combining dance and media since 2005.
"Madam Freedom’’ is a dance performance with media facade featuring footage covering various Korean cultures from the 1956 movie ``Madam Freedom’’ and other archives.
"The piece is about a housewife's imagination to overcome dull reality. The onstage performer will interact with four screen interfaces,’’ Kim said. "For the media part, we broke up the movie and reconstructed it with new footages to make the story more understandable.’’ "Madam Freedom’’ will be performed at the King's Theater on Aug. 20-21. For more information, visit www.eif.co.uk.