Artists celebrate Korea-Russia ties

Han Sung-pil’s “Illusionary Pagoda” / Courtesy of Wooyang Museum of Contemporary Art

• Published Jul 26, 2015 5:06 PM KST
• Updated Jul 26, 2015 5:06 PM KST

By Kwon Mee-yoo

GYEONGJU

―

Russian contemporary art is relatively unknown in Korea, but a new exhibition at Wooyang Museum of Contemporary Art in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, sheds light on artistic relations between Russia and Korea, commemorating the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two nations.

Titled "Real in Irreal: Russia-Korea Media Art Today," the exhibition features works of six Russian artists and six Korean artists covering a wide range of media art including photography, computer graphics and video art.

Kim Young-ho, the co-curator of the Moscow Biennale's special project "Reverse Point Asia, and Andrey Martynov, the Moscow Biennale Art Foundation General Director, co-organized the exhibit as art directors along with the Wooyang Museum curator Park Ji-hyang.

Martynov said this is going to be a stepping stone for future cultural exchanges between the two countries. Martynov showed his interest in Korean art for years and currently serves as a judge for the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea's Korea Artist Prize 2015.

"While preparing for this exhibition, I had a chance to observe versatile talents of Korean artists. This is going to be a beginning of artistic exchanges in the private sector between Russia and Korea," Martynov said.

Korean counterpart Kim Young-ho said that media art has become a major genre in contemporary art. "Today is the era of media image and many artists use new media as a tool to express their artistic creation," Kim said. "It is difficult to compare the characteristics of Russia and Korea in one word, but this exhibition will give an opportunity to sample the similarities and differences of the artists."

The first part of the exhibition has a theatrical atmosphere. Korean artist Yoo Hyun-mi, who explores the border between reality and illusion, presents a new piece from her "Museum Series."

"Museum No. 2 (Wooyang Museum of Contemporary Art, Audience" is set in a corner of the gallery and Yoo painted the walls and an audience to create a scene in which a person watches a painting emerge. Captured in photo and video, visitors to the museum will experience a sense of reality and absence.

Russian artist Alexandra Mitlyanskaya's video "Concerto" features music of famous Russian composer Tchaikovsky. A variety of visual images are edited rhythmically according to Tchaikovsky's music.

Rauf Mamedov's five-piece photo series "Pieta" is a tribute to the Bible. The polyptych-like photo series employs a mise-en-scene of movies, adding dramatic tension.

The second part explores the unseen lyricism found between the real and the imaginary.

Han Sung-pil presents his signature screen fence works using photography to frame space and time. "Harmony in Havana," which was shown at the Havana Biennial 2015 in Cuba, is a giant hanging of a photo of a stone pagoda in Gyeongju, installed at the facade of a building in Havana's main street.

Leonid Tishkov’s site-specific project “Private Moon” arrived in Gyeongju in the form of photography. The artist installs crescent-shaped light sculpture in different environments such as the nature of the North Pole and urban scenery of Taiwan.

Maxim Kholodilin presents his interest in flow through a photo series featuring images of body parts layered with schematized images of subway maps of metropolitan cities.

The exhibit runs through Sept. 30. Admission is 7,000 won. For more information, visit www.wooyangmuseum.org or call 054-745-7075.