Avant-garde artist Kim Ku-lim claims KCC UK for defamation
Kim Ku-lim
By Kwon Mee-yoo
Kim Ku-lim, one of the first generation avant-garde artists in Korea, claimed that a London exhibition held by the Korean Cultural Centre UK (KCC UK) damaged his reputation.
The KCC UK opened the exhibition "Rehearsals from the Korean Avant-Garde Performance Archive," centering on the development of performance art in Korea in the 1960s and '70s. The group exhibit which opened on June 27 features works of Lee Kun-yong, Sung Neyung-kyung, Lee Kang-so and Lee Seung-taek in addition to Kim.
The 81-year-old Kim said at a press conference Monday that he and his works received unfair treatment in the exhibition as the KCC UK used distorted and poor data which gave prominence to certain artists while diminishing others.
Kim said a major part of his career was omitted and some information in the brochure distributed at the center was inaccurate.
According to Kim, the late art critic Kim Mi-kyung described the video "The Meaning of 1/24 Second" as directed by Choi Won-young and co-created by Jung Chan-seung, Jung Kang-ja as well as Kim Ku-lim and cameraman Ban Dae-gyu in the brochure. The late critic wrote that the film was a co-creation, but Kim Ku-lim holds the copyright to the film.
Artist Kim said this is critic Kim Mi-kyung's personal opinion, and that she happens to have had a sour relationship with the artist, and that the film is his work. The artist criticized the KCC UK for not verifying the content and displaying some of the works without proper permission. "I am going to file complaints against the center for libel and copyright infringement," Kim said.
He also claimed that the center preferred certain artists, only inviting them for a performance on the opening day.
Yong Ho-seong, director of KCC UK, explained that the exhibit was organized considering the theme and was not biased. In a statement released after Kim's claims, the center said the exhibition is an archival exhibit and the curator researched the trends, not a specific artist.
"The exhibition has its direction, suggested by the curator. We invited Kim to London in 2015 and screened his films at the Tate Modern, which was held in cooperation with the KCC UK. So we thought it would be nice to introduce another Korean artist to the U.K. this time. We borrowed artworks from the Asia Culture Center and the details were not revealed to each artist beforehand," the center said. "We admit the miscommunication with the veteran artist and will talk to the artist about the new brochure and other issues."