By Cathy Rose A. Garcia
Staff Reporter
When German artist John Bock starts talking about having his next exhibition on Mars, you wonder if you’re even living on the same planet. Then you watch his new video, ``PARA―SCHIZO, ensnarled,'' and you may wonder how he managed to create such bizarre but compelling images in Korea.
Bock was recently in Seoul to unveil ``PARA―SCHIZO, ensnarled,'' which was commissioned by the Arko Art Center and Insa Art Space.
Set in Seoul, many of the scenes in the video will seem familiar but the situations and characters are straight out of Bock’s imagination. Bock was inspired by Korea’s energy, from its food, streets, people, smell and sounds, and found a way to create new images and situations.
Korean organizers first contacted Bock in September 2007 about a possible collaborative project. They also sent him research materials, such as photos and documents, that would help him understand Korea. He selected Nakwon-dong, Changsin-dong, Jegi-dong, Sinsa-dong and Dongducheon top-dong as the film locations.
Bock started shooting the film in June, with the help of 30 Korean and German staff members and another 20 curatorial staff. The film features various contraptions, which Bock created on the spot using objects found in the streets, and a heavy steel sculpture produced by local manufacturers based on the artist’s drawing.
``I started to see the places where I planned the movie, and the idea comes to two actors who do not touch each other. So there are two screens, two persons in Korea who sometimes have a connection through little objects, like a jump over time and space, like Captain Kirk from Star Trek,'' he told The Korea Times, Thursday. Bock was in Seoul for the opening of his exhibition ``2 Handbags in a Pickle,'' held simultaneously at the Arko Art Center and Insa Art Space.
The two-channel video is 40 minutes long, showing two people who are on separate but parallel paths and ``converge, clash and destroy each other in a cycle of mutual interplay.''
2 Handbags in a Pickle, uses Bock’s own metaphor for ``two microcosms that are situated in another bigger level of the universe.'' The metaphor is repeated not just between the film’s two characters, but the artist and institutions, German and Korean film crews, the two gallery spaces, and his performance and video, as well.
Asked if he experienced any problems filming in Korea, Bock replied, with a straight face: ``it wasn’t difficult. It was more difficult to jump from one galaxy to another, but my partner was Spock, so I can rely on him.''
During the opening Friday, Bock gave a ``lecture,'' a term he coined to describe his performance, where he explains ``his personal pseudo-scientific and pseudo-cosmos astrophysical theory on the mutual relation and mechanism in-between the handbags and their relations to the pickle.''
Since his debut in the mid-1990s, Bock has showcased over 150 live lectures, 90 solo shows and 60 group exhibitions, including Centre Pompidou in Paris, Museum of Modern Art/P.S. 1 in New York, Venice Biennale and Kassel Documenta.
Eight of Bock’s videos will be screened exhibited at Insa Art Center. There is also a special screening of four of Bock’s films, ``Meechfieber'' (Dec. 5 and 12), ``Skipholt'' (Dec. 19 and 26), ``Palms'' (Jan. 2, 9 and 30) and ``Inside Beyond'' (Jan. 16, 23 and Feb.6), every Friday at 5 p.m.
The exhibit runs through Feb. 8. Arko Art Center is located near Hyehwa Station Line 4, Exit 2, while Insa Art Space is near Changdeok Palace (Anguk Station Line 3). Visit www.arkoartcenter.or.kr or www.insaartspace.or.kr.