young min moon

activating korea: tides of collective action

        home Works on Paper Some Sense of Order projects writings deconstruction of fear resonant objects land of happiness yearning for home rag face translocating women on failure the poetics of latency shifting anxieties report from the underside out of pictures phantoms of community the illegal lives the politics of curating activating korea incongruent for eliese editorial info contact

“The Composition of Social Memories,” in Activating Korea: Tides of Collective Action,

exhibition catalogue, Govett-Brewster Gallery (New Plymouth, New Zealand, 2008).

Artists: BAE Young Whan, CDC, flyingCity, JNP Production, KIM Gisoo, Sang-Don KIM, KO Hyun

Joo, Minouk Lim, mixrice, Hein-kuhn OH, and PARK Chan-kyong. Exhibition design by CHOI

Jeong-hwa

Curators: Mercedes Vicente, Curator Contemporary Art Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, and Beck

Jee-sook, Director of ARKO Art Center

Activating Korea was on view at Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth, New Zealand,

from September to November 2007. A bilingual English/Korean publication featuring essays

by curators Mercedes Vicente and Beck Jee-sook, and Young Min Moon, was published in 2008.

Activating Korea: Tides of collective action looks at the complex and contradictory

meanings of collectivism in South Korean contemporary artistic practices, within a society

where traditional values coexist with today’s multifaceted changes. The works in this

exhibition represent a shift from the political representations of South Korea’s

authoritarian government, the Cold War and national division heralded by 1980s Minjung

(people’s) art. Today, artists aim to raise awareness and effect change around issues such

as urban development, immigration and national identity, and choose to work in collectives

or collaboratively with communities drawing on activist art practices, research and

project-based activities. Featuring a range of media from photography, banners, posters,

to video and design, the artists in this exhibition challenge the fast-paced cultural,

economic and political changes facing South Korea.

© Images the Artists & Govett-Brewster Gallery 2008