If you've read previous articles, you will think, "When did Chisai go to Korea for the first time?”. Now I don't start writing same words about Korea, hahaha.
This photo is suburb of Gwangju, South Korea.
One day, I got on the bus and said “I want to go to Gwangju science museum”. Bus driver said to me, “OK, sit down (in Korean, maybe)”. After one hour, bus driver said to me again, “ilbon! (Japan in Korean)” and he pointed at the wide field. "Where is here?" He could not reply to my English. Getting off the bus, I walked 40 minutes and I found the museum!!
Like this, South Korea is “strange experience” country for me. Contemporary art, too. Today I introduce two my friend artists.
One is Hoonida Kim. He is based in Seoul. I met him around 2000, he went abroad to art university in Tokyo. (At that time) my boyfriend introduced him to me, “he is interesting Korean”. Even though I broke up with my boyfriend, I've been in touch with Hoonida.
MMCA YouTube, Hoonida Kim, 2021
It is excellent that Hoonida always learns something and always tries anything. Thanks to him, I understood that media art works have a wide range, not only projection mapping.
Another artist is Bokyong Kim, she lives in Busan. She is the same age as me, and she is always in agony. One day, she told me, “come on Busan, let’s walk along the river together!”.
Walking along the river? I hurriedly got a plane ticket and headed for the station where I was going to meet. There wasn't her exhibition. It was like a workshop, but it was not Sunday afternoon. Despite Wednesday afternoon, there were about 20 people. I was so surprised at it. She said frankly, "as you can see my work at my exhibition and get to know me, you walk here where I always walk on and you understand my thought, I want to share it today".
Of course, these two are not the only Korean artists. Nowadays Korean contemporary art is not particular about genres, material and forms such as painting or sculpture. Korean artists are trying to connect with the outside world and give us variety of ideas and views. In short, Korean art is profound!