DAEGU PHOTO BIENNALE 2016
2016-10-24 l Hit 1273
DAEGU PHOTO BIENNALE 2016
(At the Daegu Culture & Arts Center and nearby locations until November 3rd)
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‘Daegu Photo Biennale 2016’, the nation’s largest photo festival that shows the trends of contemporary photography, will be held until November 11th at the Daegu Culture & Arts Center, Bongsan Cultural Center, Bongsan Culture Street, and downtown areas in Daegu. It will be held for 36 days under the theme: “We are from somewhere, but where are we going.” Around 300 artists from 33 different countries are participating in the Biennale, which includes artists from the Korean Artist Project (KAP): Myungkeun KOH, Koh Sang Woo, Osang Gwon, Joon KIM, Nanda, Jongjun SON, Hyunmi YOO, Sang Hyun Lee, and Ha Tae-Bum.
This past October 9th, a day of exceptionally nice weather, I visited the Daegu Culture & Arts Center, the main exhibition hall of Daegu Photo Biennale 2016. The majority of viewers were outside, probably due to the weather, instead of viewing the work inside the exhibition hall. Upon entering the hall, I could see a vintage photo booth located near the Biennale banner, which was hung on a huge window, and I used the photo booth right away, since it was not crowded at that moment.
 Scene from the exhibition at Daegu Photo Biennale 2016. |
The main exhibitions begin on the second floor, but I decided to slowly look at the work from the first floor, where special exhibitions are displayed. There were two special exhibitions: ‘Me in the Photography’ and ‘One principle runs through it all’ on the first floor. The section ‘Me in the Photography’ was organized in order to examine ‘oneself’ with photographs as a medium, and a piece of artwork by Nanda, who was selected to be a third-year member of KAP, was in this section. I was especially excited to see the work in the exhibition. The staged photograph shows the artist dressed up as a modern girl living in the modern era.
There were many pieces of work in the special exhibitions, so I felt a bit exhausted even before seeing the main exhibitions. I went up to the second floor with a heavy tread, and personnel from the exhibition very kindly informed me of the proper way to look at the exhibitions: starting from ‘Chapter 1 – Identity.’ Consisting of 82 artists in total from 14 different countries, including Korea, China, Japan, Israel, Cambodia, Vietnam, and many more, the main exhibitions focus on the rapidly changing circumstances in Asia, addressing where photography is going based on questions the artists ask themselves about their existence and personal direction. Considering the grandiose subject matter and the great volume of work, I felt that the exhibitions were organized in a relatively ordinary way.
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In the first exhibition hall, I found the work called ‘Forest Green Day’ by artist Joon KIM, who is a member of KAP. Dark turquoise takes up a large portion of this artwork. There was a description of the work explaining that the work was not created by taking pictures, but made by modifying images digitally, and featured the artist’s comment saying, “I am a digital craftsman.” Also, there was work by Myungkeun KOH, who creates three-dimensional structures with photographs. His work is composed of transparent photos constructed into three-dimensional structures. Some of them were piled up like a tower and others were displayed in cube shapes of various sizes in the exhibition hall.
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“It was totally like that.”
“I know!”
Sounds broke the silence of the hall, and I followed them. A video installation showed the late Ju-yung Chung’s visit to North Korea with 501 heads of cattle in 1998 by the artist Sang Hyun Lee, titled ‘Hyun Dai Chairman Chung Brings the Cows Home.’ Two elders were pointing from image to image, talking about this and that in front of the work, vividly recalling their memories from back then.
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No KAP artist participated in the section, ‘Chapter 2 – Over the Waves,’ so I will skip commenting on Chapter 2.
The next section was ‘Chapter 3 – Anoymouse MeYou’, in which I was able to see the photography of artist Ha Tae-Bum. His work takes a few steps to be completed; he collects news photographs of scenes from accidents and current affairs that are shown in the media, creates white objects using them as references, and then takes pictures of the objects. Collapsed buildings in achromatic color appear in the work and I felt like they were shouting without making sounds. On the other hand, artist Koh Sang Woo’s series, ‘Self-Portrait Boundaries of Sense,’ was so visually intense that I could recognize it from far away. The series was used for the cover image of Daegu Photo Biennale 2016’s pamphlet. The series consists of the words ‘LOVE’, ‘HATE’, ‘FEEL’, ‘HEAR’, ‘WISH’, ‘SPEAK’, and ‘BELIEVE’ written on faces. I felt that these could be the keywords that can be interpreted throughout the Biennale.
‘Chapter 4 - Where are you going’ was the last exhibition. While indifferently passing by a monitor that was displayed vertically, the person in the monitor suddenly blinked their eyes. It was a pleasant twist, since I believed that it was a photograph. This surprising work was created by artist Hyunmi YOO. She also submitted multimedia work that shows a woman holding a pomegranate, and the baseball player Chan Ho Park wearing a shabby baseball uniform with a crown, standing side by side with the woman.
 Artist Hyunmi YOO’s work (left), (collaborated) featuring baseball player Chan Ho Park, and artist Jongjun SON’s work (right) were displayed side by side. |
Artist Jongjun SON’s work was displayed right next to the work from artist Hyunmi YOO. People in the photograph are shown with their bodies wrapped with cold and sharp metal objects. However, instead of feeling tension from the fact that the people were wearing weapons, I felt some kind of sadness in the work. The metal objects that are worn by the people in the photographs were also exhibited alongside the work.
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Lastly, artist Osang Kwon’s 'New Structure' series was displayed in the exhibition. The finished work seems somewhat enormous and serious, but it consists of images of common goods such as cheeses and sausages. The artist printed out the photos on a large scale, and then stacked them up into a unique structure.
There was a massive amount of work in the exhibition, so it took a fairly long time for me to go through all of it. Unfortunately, after I finished looking through it, instead of being impressed by the work, I was thinking more about being hungry.
Besides the exhibition at the Daegu Culture & Arts Center, there are other events during the Biennale period, such as the 《Exhibition of the works of 30 photographers》 at the Bongsan Cultural Center, the 《NET PHOTO FESTIVAL》 at the Bongsan Culture Street Gallery, various special exhibitions, photography courses, a photo book library, and so on. It seems like a good idea to experience these programs and have some fun with it. (053)243-4790
2016. 10. 28 ⓒKorean Artist Project
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