akive

38°N SNOW SOUTH: KOREAN CONTEMPORARY ART

February 3 – March 19 2011

Galleri Charlotte Lund
Kungstensgatan 23, SE-113 57 Stockholm, Sweden

Tel: + 46 (0)8 663 0979
Fax: + 46 (0)8 663 0978
Email: info@gallericharlottelund.com
www.gallericharlottelund.com

Artist: BAE Bien-U
BAE Joon Sung
JUNG Yeon Doo
KIM Dong Yoo
LEE Dong Wook
SHIN Meekyoung

Curator: Miyoung von Platen, Independent Curator
Fredrikshovsgatan 10, 11523 Stockholm, Sweden

Tel: +46 (0)8 660 0904
Mobile: +46 (0)70 325 7427
Email: miyoungvp@gmail.com

Opening Reception: February 3 2011

Sponsor: LG Sweden


38°N SNOW SOUTH: KOREAN CONTEMPORARY ART is a group exhibition of paintings, photographs, video works and sculptures by six eminent artists from South Korea. This is the first group exhibition of Korean contemporary art in Sweden.
Korean contemporary art has received increasing international acclaim in recent years. The introduction of a new foreign policy allowing South Koreans to travel abroad by easing the former strictly controlled foreign travel in 1989, made many artists aware that they needed to explore the global art scene. As part of this shift, Korea has started to promote international art by putting on more international art exhibitions in their own country. Gradually, more Korean artists are being invited to international exhibitions and well-known museums globally. The first Gwangju Biennale and the Korean Pavilion at the 46th Venice Biennale in 1995 have not only added further international momentum to art practice and art market in Korea, but have also changed the way Korean contemporary art is perceived on the international art scene. However, many artists in South Korea today continue to work in highly individual ways.
The title of this exhibition, 38°N SNOW SOUTH: KOREAN CONTEMPORARY ART came about to highlight where the artists are from. It tries to enhance a better understanding of their cultural boundaries by reminding the viewers that South Korea is located between China, Japan and south of the 38th parallel and has cold snowy winter. The term 38°N represents the high- tension dividing zone. It is the only place in the world where one country is divided into two halves that are still officially at war with one another, and this has become an emblematic code for socio-political challenges in Korea. This exhibition thus seeks to present the way in which these artists deal with the increasing tension between the pressure of retaining their local identity and the demand for an international acceptance of their art.
As the theme of this exhibition is the link between art and its cultural representations and the ways artists in South Korea perceive the effects of rapidly globalised communication, I have selected six of the most dynamic visual artists working in South Korea today who use their art to deal with the themes of cultural differences, local identity and the effect of globalisation.

Miyoung von Platen (장 미 영)