For me, Korean art is a series of surprises. No! I wouldn't be surprised if I were just looking at artworks, going to exhibitions, or chatting with my friends' artists and curators.
In 2016 December, as I walked around Seoul with my friend's artist, she said, "I remembered my friend curated exhibition near here!". We went there and it seemed like it hadn't been long since the exhibition opened because we could meet curator and artists.
My friend's artist who took me there introduced me to the curator, "My friend, Chisai is Japanese”. The curator said awkwardly with a bitter face, "Oh, you're Japanese." She also said in a low voice. "Why did you bring the Japanese?"
The exhibition is titled "Camellia Millefeuille", this is a metaphor for the numerous layers of modern and contemporary history of Korea and Taiwan with red color. Both Korea and Taiwan were Japanese colonies from around 1900 to 1945. At that time, the Japanese government forced them to speak Japanese and change their names to Japanese-style ones. If they had opposition, the Japanese government killed and severely punished them. So neither Koreans nor Taiwanese actually like Japanese.
I knew it faintly, and it is true that many Japanese still think that Japanese are better than Koreans and Taiwanese. But I don't agree with any opinion. Rather, it's because I'm interested in what the artists think and how they present their artworks, not the country or ethnicity. And I was shocked to hear that "Japanese came here", even though I thought art had no borders.
Some of artworks in the exhibition were certainly criticized about Japanese rule. And (at that time I couldn't read) Korean and Chinese characters were also a barrier to me as a Japanese (now I can read them). About the artist next door across the ocean, I wish to think calmly and objectively. This exhibition, for me, was good opportunity to ask "what is Asia/Asian contemporary art?".