JeeMin Kim, Seoul and What Remains Unread

00:00:06: I'm Esenija Bannan, and this is a bonus episode of Art & Quarant podcast.

00:00:38: It is used a little like Once Upon A Time or A Long, Long Time ago.

00:00:49: The sound and the image of it sparked my curiosity because I arrived with so many stories already in mind.

00:00:58: Legend has it that In the Past Tobacco was think for everyone in Korea from children to elders From rich to poor!

00:01:06: It's playful an imaginative way To describe distant mythical past and sets the mood for fairytale by referencing an impossible time so long ago that even wild animals smoke traditional tobacco pipes.

00:01:22: So let's light our pipes in travel back to January first, nineteen eighty-nine The year people could freely travel to and from South Korea due to fact of government completely lifted overseas travel restrictions followed to the year in which the artist Namjoon Paik played a pivotal role in printing The Whitney Biennial's Soul To South Korea.

00:01:48: Years later, the Gwangju Biennel was founded and then of course Korea's oldest contemporary biennial known as the Busan Biennel, and, in preparation for its two-thousand-two exhibition the name was permanently changed to The Busan Biennial we know as Today.

00:02:09: The inaugural edition of RISOL opened in September of twenty-twenty-two at the COEX Convention Center marking first FORE into Asia partnership with Korea International Art Fair.

00:02:23: It is important to point out here that Friis did not create Seoul's contemporary art scene.

00:02:28: Long before the fair even arrived, artists' institutions and exhibitions had already built a rich international conversation – one that continues to form this city today!

00:02:42: A lot of smoke around the art scene in South Korea, which has continued to transform itself into a major art hub.

00:02:56: And then what will happen when one strips away the commercial smoke of VIP previews auction indices and transporting?

00:03:04: And enters the arts scene for the first time through relationship –a local place–and an act simply paying attention?

00:03:19: My first connection with Seoul had begun from afar.

00:03:23: Da-Hung Lee, the director of Age Zone invited me last year to contribute an essay to The Catalog for Dialogue Unread.

00:03:31: A group exhibition bringing together ten contemporary artists and Hee-Jum Chee a historic Hanok in Buk Shon.

00:03:39: To prepare accordingly I had a lot conversations with one participating artist Jumin Kim whose work was writing my essay about.

00:03:48: This is what's the reason Sol had entered my life first through conversations via Zoom, books, notes and images on screen.

00:03:57: Then suddenly I was there walking into Jimin Kim's installations.

00:04:02: Kim's prototype temple series bring painting sound movement and fragments of memory to temporary worlds.

00:04:10: The artist begins her work with drawings and paintings but they develop into installation that are part stage in part imagined landscapes.

00:04:20: In her installations we see chandeliers, kinetic elements and here compose sounds.

00:04:27: Bells, rain, footsteps and voices become part of the atmosphere.

00:04:32: The artist draws on memories growing up in Seoul later living in London.

00:04:37: Yet she does not turn these memories into illustrations.

00:04:40: They became fictional scenes suspended somewhere between intimate and unfamiliar.

00:04:46: Kim's work allows the past to remain open.

00:04:49: It can appear personal, abstract or strangely collective depending on what each visitor brings to it whether in a historical Hijim Cheh or contemporary building.

00:05:00: The installations did not simply occupy their space.

00:05:03: They entered into conversation with that.

00:05:07: Before this trip Sol had reached me through books films conversations and screen.

00:05:12: None of that truly prepared me for the speed and texture being there.

00:05:16: I went to Free Soul with a filmmaker from Los Angeles, it was also her first visit!

00:05:22: We were not trying to track every sale or identify the most important name at their fair.

00:05:27: we wanted you see what happened when we entered with completely open eyes.

00:05:32: So let's start with the mood of Free Soul which was light yet dynamic.

00:05:36: The presentation small but filled with curiosity.

00:05:40: in delicate fashion.

00:05:42: It is almost hard to unsee the young and stylish crowd of millennial NGNZ collectors, VIP guests and fashionistas who blend high-end designer streetwear with contemporary pieces.

00:05:53: Yes, Free Soul is a fair but it is organized as part of citywide festival engaging other cultural institutions in its city – not only highly established ones.

00:06:06: In other words, Fris Week did not end at COEX.

00:06:10: One evening led us to Uliro where artists run and non-profit spaces open their doors.

00:06:16: with its space less choreographed the scale more intimate During the week galleries and institutions across this city also stayed open late.

00:06:24: The program extended through other neighborhoods including Hanam, Cheongdam & Samcheong.

00:06:31: But I do not want to turn this episode into best things, what stayed with me was the movement itself.

00:06:39: From one district to another from the established to independent and from rooms designed for selling only two rooms open for experimentation.

00:06:48: In my profession to view that an art biennial is just a cultural phenomenon design to enrich the minds will be as incorrect judgment.

00:07:00: Both events have equally dip their toes in each other's waters.

00:07:04: This is because the line between commercial and cultural practices become more and more blurry these days.

00:07:12: For me, that was a real value of this journey.

00:07:14: I did not come away believing That i understood souls art scene In its entirety.

00:07:20: It will be too easy after just one visit But I left with a clear sense Of how an art scene Is made Not by single fare An institution or One type of audience but by different places, speeds and forms of attention all existing beside one another.

00:07:35: I had arrived in Seoul with many stories already in my mind And yet i left the feeling that more interesting remain unread.

00:07:45: Now while recording this episode which is just a few days after returned and jet lag subsided My voyage feels like back when tigers used to smoke.