NEGOTIATING BORDERS, Sydney
Imagining a new future for the North and South in an exhibition presented by the Korean Cultural Centre Australia
Marking the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Korean Cultural Centre last year, this month the Korean Cultural Centre Australia in partnership with the REAL DMZ PROJECT presents Negotiating Borders, Sydney; an international exhibition of the work of renowned Korean artists.
Taking place in the Korean Cultural Centre Gallery from Friday January 28 and Tuesday March 29, Negotiating Borders, Sydney reflects on the past and present situations of the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone), a strip of land running across the Korean Peninsula. The exhibition uses the unprecedented times we currently live in as a metaphor for the possibility of a new future between North and South Korea.
Kilhwa Jung, President of the Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange (KOFICE) said, "Today's pandemic has forced us to confront various borders, and this exhibition, which focuses on the visible and invisible borders in the DMZ, will enable us to observe borders from an artistic perspective and delve into their historical and cultural significance. I hope that this exhibition will contribute to revitalizing cultural exchanges and discourses between Korea and Australia."
Presented across a gallery space within the Korean Cultural Centre, the exhibition features works by top Korean artists, showing moments of border-crossing and correspondence between the two Koreas in varying ways and degrees. Sojung Jun's video work Early Arrival of Future features a joint performance of a North Korean pianist and a South Korean pianist, Jane Jin Kaisen's Apertures | Specters | Rifts, displays photographs of North Korea from international women's delegations in 1951 and 2015. Daejin Choi's Last Chance captures a pro-boxing match held in Osaka in 2000 between a South and North Korean. Also shown is Kyungah Ham's embroidery work Needling Whisper, Needle Country / SMS Series in Camouflage, done by North Korean embroiderers of a result of a forbidden contact the artist made through a third party.
The exhibition continues with further works in the upstairs gallery of the KCC. Woosung Lee's How are you doing? I'm doing well here, is a work on personal narratives within the history of Korea's division that the artist contemplated while looking out at North Korea from an observatory. A second work by Jane Jin Kaisen, Sweeping the Forest Floor features a mine detector moving frantically in a lush forest inside the Civilian Control Line (the borderline stretching 5 to 20 kilometers south of the Southern Limit Line). Kyung Jin Zoh & Hye Ryeong Cho's DMZ Botanic Garden comprises a herbarium of plants growing naturally in the DMZ; and Heinkuhn Oh's Middlemen photographic series observes South Korean men in the military, a mandatory service in the country.
The REAL DMZ PROJECT was conceived in 2011 to explore the (in)visible borders of the DMZ through the critical lens of contemporary art and to raise awareness about the division of Korea.
Sunjung Kim, artistic director of the REAL DMZ PROJECT said, "Since its inception, the REAL DMZ PROJECT has been observing the history and cultural significance of the DMZ through works from various perspectives on the border, and a multi-layered understanding of the Korean Peninsula's division and discourse on peace has been presented. I hope that this exhibition in Sydney will broaden the conversation and provide an opportunity to examine the meaning of boundaries in the pandemic era."
Jihee Kim, director of the Korean Cultural Centre said, "After all the COVID-19 difficulties, I am delighted to finally present Negotiating Borders, which was originally planned for last year to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the Centre's establishment. As we enter the first month of a new year, I hope that many people visit our gallery which will be transformed by Korean contemporary art to provide a unique perspective on the division and peace of the Korean Peninsula."
As part of this exhibition, there will also be an artist video screening and talk at the National Art School on Thursday March 24.
Negotiating Borders, Sydney is presented by the Korean Cultural Centre in partnership with the REAL DMZ PROJECT and supported by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Korea and the Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange (KOFICE) as part of the Travelling Korean Arts Project which aims to support the international touring of Korean arts.
F
