Hakgojae Gallery & Art Centre, Seoul, Korea

2024.09.03 - 2024.10.05

Curator: Yongwoo Lee

Artists

Oum Jeongsoon, Ding Yi, Shiota Chiharu

I Thought I Lost It! is presented in the form of forum and exhibition that examines how art and architecture can contribute to the social consensus to create the resilient social communities we envision. This project serves as a platform for re-evaluating the interplay between art and society, focusing on themes such as communal engagement and social inclusiveness within artistic practices.

This project, conceptualized as both a ‘forum as an exhibition’ and an ‘exhibition as a forum,’ seeks to break away from the elitist focus on specific concepts, forms, and styles that contemporary art and architecture have long pursued. Instead, it aims to critically reflect on the myriad of “inherited wounds” that humanity must confront—encompassing political, social, and ecological challenges—while endeavoring to preserve the individual and collective memory of these issues.

The community spirit of art advocated by this project pertains to the relational implications between art and society. It engages in verifying how art fosters solidarity within the historical and mnemonic frameworks of individuals or communities, and how it contributes to social agreements. The term “inherited wounds” encompasses a range of social and historical entanglements impacting individuals, communities, and nations. It refers to the continuum of personal and collective trauma resulting from both inadvertent and intentional acts of violence, which frequently occur in an unconscious manner.

Art constitutes a realm of expression that upholds and asserts human dignity, transcending geographical and cultural boundaries. It is also a product of freedom and imagination, which guard against exclusivity. The capacity of art and architecture to forge spaces that intertwine our individual and collective experiences, sorrows, and memories stems from their meta-social function, which fosters communication and connection among individuals and groups.

Historically, modernism’s emphasis on clarity and fragmentation was used to draw distinctions between the past and the future, the North and the South, progress and regression, and radicalism and conservatism. However, in light of the current ecological crises and profound transformations, such fragmented discourses no longer provide a viable direction. This forum, therefore, aims to serve as a consultative platform to pause the momentum and reevaluate the factors that influence our judgments.

The invited artists for this project are Oum Jeongsoon from Korea, Ding Yi from China, and Shiota Chiharu from Japan. These artists share a common theme of challenging and exploring the implicit yet inescapable self-identity that humans experience as a fate. Their works focus how art should engage with, mediate, and respond to social change as well as inclusiveness. Additionally, the project investigates how contemporary, motivated, and democratized audiences should reassess art, urban spaces, and architecture. The participating artists also diagnose and validate the human absence and ecological crises subtly imposed by social systems driven by rapid technological advancements. This provides a crucial framework for reflecting on ideologies we have yet to learn and memories

we have yet to acquire.

Artists from three countries in East Asia—Korea, China, and Japan—share a long history of mutual influence and dialogue, proposing and critically assessing diverse perspectives on one another. Through their art, they have developed and articulated their own political, social, cultural, and ecological discourses. The artists participating in this project embody the zeitgeist and collective memories that shape the historical narratives of social communities, including those in marginalized or vulnerable positions, within a visual-cultural framework. This approach transcends narrow geopolitical issues or specific regional relationships, focusing instead on the ontological essence of art. Additionally, critics, curators, architects, and urban planners with research interests in these themes are invited to participate in the forum as ‘researchers.’ The presentations and insights shared during the forum will be compiled and published in a book during the exhibition period.

Chinese artist Ding Yi emerged as a pioneer of geometric abstraction in the history of Chinese contemporary art, utilizing the cross (+) and grid (x) symbols—reminiscent of mathematical notation—as his primary expressive medium for nearly four decades, beginning in 1986. He belongs to the first generation of the avant-garde movement that rapidly developed in the 1980s following the Cultural Revolution. During this period, the new generation of contemporary artists were either significantly influenced by Western contemporary art due to China’s opening or focused on revisiting Chinese cultural traditions to reaffirm Chinese identity. In contrast, Ding Yi distanced himself from both Western influences and the quest for a distinct Chinese identity. Instead, he engaged with the fundamental questions that art itself poses or addresses, and sought his own resolutions. At that time, young artists valued novelty and endorsed “more radical and more

experimental” approaches.

He began his journey into abstract painting in 1986 by using seemingly trivial and neglected mathematical symbol-like signs “+” and “x” as mediums of expression and communication. This approach starkly contrasted with the trend of many young artists who were seeking grand and meaningful themes. By proposing meaninglessness as an alternative in an era obsessed with finding profound meanings, he paradoxically conveyed his rejection of such pursuits. The abstract art he pioneered was considered decadent and banned during the Cultural Revolution as a form of capitalist art. However, he redefined abstract metaphors as a means to interpret and reflect on the times, using them as an expressive alternative. His art served as a messenger, documenting and reflecting on the social changes, economic development, and urbanization in China through diverse

themes, compositions, and colors.

Shiota Chiharu, who has been based in Berlin since 1996, is renowned for her performance and installation art that employs threads. Her work explores the interplay between specific spaces and the materials within them, delicately exposing and interpreting themes such as memory, the body, boundaries, and alienation, while blending individual and social connections.

Her installations, often created with threads or hoses in colors like red, black, and white, emphasize the significance of the space in which they are displayed. Everyday objects featured in her work—such as keys, window frames, old clothes, shoes, boats, travel bags, and plastic tubes—are connected to personal or collective memories. The colors and materials, particularly red, which symbolizes lives, are intricately interwoven with these objects and threads. These small objects and their arrangements evoke memories that seem to resonate with life around us or within our DNA.

In contrast to the common art-world taboo against touching artworks, artist Oum Jeongsoon invites viewers to touch and interact with her works, encouraging participation in the themes she explores. For instance, for visually impaired individuals, touching an elephant provides a sensory experience akin to encountering its presence. This idea is encapsulated in the Buddhist phrase “As if a blind person touches an elephant” from the Nirvana Sutra. An elephant is a massive and complex entity, that represents a profound contrast between seeing and not seeing, emphasizing the importance of social inclusiveness in art. Art’s capacity to support and heal marginalized groups, and its role in fostering social consensus through participatory engagement, are central to Oum Jeongsoon’s practice.

Oum Jeongsoon’s concept of social inclusiveness extends beyond mere tolerance or compromise; it involves creating institutional mechanisms and participatory opportunities for marginalized groups. Her artistic practices and research are grounded in reality, not just imagination. For visually impaired individuals, the abstract or imagined trunk and ears of an elephant differ significantly from the perceptions of sighted people. Her project, Another Way of Seeing, integrates art with social engagement, using imagination to explore new perspectives.

Historically, when an elephant was first brought to Korea 600 years ago, a government official mocked and mistreated it due to its unusual appearance, eventually being killed by the elephant’s trunk. The elephant was then exiled to a remote island. Upon learning of this, King Sejong decreed that the elephant be sent to a location with good water and grass to prevent further suffering. This event, recorded in The Veritable Records of King Sejong, underscores the irony that art created by those who have never seen an elephant— socially marginalized individuals—can become a powerful symbol of social participation and inclusiveness. The creation of an elephant without a trunk by those who have never seen one metaphorically challenges notions of power or hierarchy.

The works of participating artists capture the interaction of social anthropological messages such as time, history, individual and collective memory, evolution, progress, inclusiveness, and exclusiveness. They remind us that art plays a crucial role in addressing societal issues related to architecture, urban development, technology, and the environment while intervening in and conveying social meanings. These artists reflect on the loss of communal spirit in rapidly urbanizing East Asia since the late 20th century and evoke the impact of consumerism and urbanization on the small, beautiful memories of city life.

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