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2021 Asia Art Residency Result Exhibition Poster

ACC has been continuing its cultural art activities despite becoming less active due to the pandemic. Among those activities, the residency program is essential, like a basic academic. The more creative artists and researchers gather to work with the residency program, the more vigorous ACC will become. The residency program in ACC is operated in two different places. The first place is the ACC Culture Creation Center. As it is already known, the global residency program 'ACC_R' is underway, where artists and researchers from various genres gather to create, collaborate and communicate their works. ACC Webzine has been continuously introducing the artists and researchers who have participated in ACC_R.
The second place is less well known compared to the first. It is the Asia Plex Studio, the annex building of ACC. The Asia Plex Studio is located in the annex of the former Seo-gu office, approximately 4.1km away from ACC. Here, the ACC residency program is also annually held, mainly with domestic artists. In this issue, we will be introducing the recently held 'Asia Art Residency Program.'

Gang-Geon 「Bienvenue Series」, 「그(He)」, 「늘(Shelter)」(2021)

The process to select the artists who will move into the Asia Art Residency and work from December 2020 to April 2021 was quite intense. A total of 142 people applied when the recruitment announcement was posted. The applicants got through two steps — document examination and interview by 13 experts from different fields. The 2nd evaluation was conducted online due to COVID-19. Through these processes, ten domestic youth artists were selected, in various fields such as painting, photography, three-dimensional structure, installation, etc. They are Ki Cheol Shin, Seung Won Yang, Sang Bin Park, Gun Kang, Tuna Lee, Se Jin Hong, Seon Woo Shin, Yeong Mi Lee, Ju Young Lee, and Ji Soo Seo.

Ji-soo Seo 「Self-selfie-portraits」 et al. (2021)

The artists in residence who were assigned with their own workroom officially participated in a few detailed programs while working on their own creations for about four months. First, the ‘Networking program with cultural art organizations and professionals’ was conducted on February 26th, 2021. The purpose of this program is to liven the residency program up by encouraging communication and socialization with other artists and some experts from different organizations. Except for the ten artists from the Asia Plex Studio, there were four artists and officials from the international residency program of Gwangju Museum of art, staff in charge of ACC and the Gwangju Cultural Foundation, the CEO of the cultural space Bbong Bbong Bridge, etc. Even though this program was held with Zoom online due to COVID-19, meaningful communication was achieved in the contactless situation. The Asia Plex Studio shared the schedule and content of its residency program, and the other organizations that participated in the event introduced their residency programs. They improved their understanding about the history of culture and art of Gwangju. The artists also had time to introduce their artworks and get familiar with each other.

Se-jin Hong 「Side by Side」, 「The Hidden Shadow」 et al. (2021)

The second program was 'consulting and mentoring'. This program aimed to provide the artists with a place to meet with some domestic experts who can give appropriate advice on their work. Five specialists were appointed as the consultants — In Sun Kim(Head of Willing and Dealing Art Consulting), Ju Hyun Cho(Director of Ilmin Museum Art and Science Department), Bo Seul Shin(Head Curator of Total Art Museum), Kyung Mi Park(Head of PKM Gallery), and Ji Young Maeng(Curator of Dusan Gallery). Each advisor met up with two artists in residence three times. They together had deep conversations in a workroom or through Zoom online while reviewing the artists’ pieces, depending on their situations. The consultants documented their sessions by writing a report.

Young-mi Lee 「The Ghost of the Multipurpose Room」(2021)

In this process, the artists kept working on their private pieces, and presented their creation at the 'result exhibition’, the last program. The result exhibition was held for 11 days, from April 9th to April 19th, 2021. A total of 32 pieces were displayed in two exhibition rooms on the first floor and on the first basement floor of the Asia Plex Studio. The title of the exhibition, NEW WORLD NEW WORD implies that this event expresses the unique voices of the artists who, passing through COVID-19, pursue a different world from the existing norms. Just as the title, the pieces contained fresh sentiment and imagination of the contemporary youth artists.

Sang-bin Park 「Dobermann Pinscher」, 「Mollusc Gastropoda Plastics」(2021)

Artist Sang Bin Park created two plastic animals — and Mollusc Gastropoda Plastics. Park collected disposable plastics easily thrown away in our daily lives and turned them into art pieces full of life. The piece Dobermann Pinscher embodied the shape of a dog, the animal that humans have improved its species the most, makes the audiences think about artificial and natural existences in modern society.

Tuna Lee 「GMC」(2021)

The extraordinary sculpture GMC was produced by Tuna Lee, also known as Dong Won Lee. The artist revives abandoned and neglected objects into a form of sculpture. For example, the wreckages from some redevelopment areas in Gwangju turn into materials for an art piece. The pictures of buildings found online can be also used for the work. The artist regards the collection of articles that represents the fragment of the same era as an ‘excavation’. He piles up the collected materials with some cement and coats them with resin. The sculpture, named ‘analogous relics’ by the creator, seems like a monument that implies modern society.

Ki-cheol Shin 「Depthless」(2021)

Ki Cheol Shin's Depthless explores the problems about the actual and virtual images in the digital era through a series of photography. Shin observes the reality of how various images of art, including photos, pictures, sculptures, architectures, etc., eventually get absorbed, integrated, and homogenized to digital images. And then, the artist turns them into a metaphor through photography using the errors of the AI program. Shin makes the AI character modification program recognize the pictures of person’s statues that he took. The AI will then mistake the figures for real people and change them into an image of a human, turning the inanimate sculpture into life. These digital images arouse a strange and unpleasant atmosphere.

Joo-Young Lee 「Black Water」(2021)

Joo Young Lee, who mainly uses the plane and installation operation, uses languages in Black Water to question about the problems that the current era faces. The artist thinks the present as the 'era of escaping the truth,' as more and more distorted languages and fake information are flowing into our lives. The artist also thinks that the public is living their lives filled with their own beliefs. Lee studies how these languages settle down in our daily lives by collecting them included in various media. The title of the art piece 'Black Water' indicates the truth buried in numerous opinions.

Seon-Woo Shin 「Ceremony」, 「Ceremony-Model」 et al. (2021)

Geon Kang deals with a problem of the ego deteriorated by the eyes of others through sculpture and painting. Ji Soo Seo explores the identity of an individual by collecting and modifying the images, mostly selfies, that emerged with the advent of the internet and smartphones. Their works take a whole new approach to a similar topic of ‘self’ and ‘identity’.
Also, Se Jin Hong’s painting and installation portray unfamiliar images with the modification of objects and natural landscapes. Young Mi Lee’s work pay closer attention to common things that we normally pass by, and she repetitively weaves the images together and expands them in the form of installation. They have a similar point of interest, but express it in their own unique way.
Lastly, Seon Woo Shin’s work shows the cultural aspects of modern society and the attitude of humans that recognize and enjoy them, and the images of humanity revealed in the digital world in the form of painting or three-dimensional art piece. Seung Won Yang’s work mixes both the reality and processed image into one photographic image and installed it on the exterior window of the building. The audience can get a hint of their willingness to expand the method of expression from the existing painting and photography.

Seung-Won Yang 「Eclipse-Comet-The Sun」(1~3F)(2021)

The result exhibition of this year’s Asia Art Residency was a place to present the unique perspective and imagination of the youth artists towards the digitalized modern society after going through the pandemic. Just like the title of the exhibition, these artists dream of a new world and strive to create new stories. We hope that the Asia Art Residency Program will continue to serve the role of a stepping stone for youth artists to share their world and stories more abundantly. The Asia Art Residency Program waits for new youth artists to work with.

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  Written by Jong-Ok Baek. icezug@hanmail.net
  Photo. Provided by ACC
  
  2021.07