Modern Myths

-In the body and language- 

  written by Kim, Ok-real

   Do we see what a painting tries to say? Or, does it speak even? If so, how much do we listen to what it shows?    Today   I am again standing in front of a painting which I listen to with eyes and see with ears, trying to commune with    it. Trying   so that my eyes might become ears and my ears become eyes for those who have never made such an    attempt nor   even dreamed of it.

I

   In fact, it is difficult to understand a painting. Perhaps it is the reality of contemporary art that it easily leads us to    misinterpretations and misunderstanding. Many say that they have nothing to say about it. Most of these people had    no   chance to understand art, or more precisely, even to look at its work. Art has been passing between objectivity    (naturalism) and subjectivity (modernism). Being a fragmented subject in itself, it has provoked huge discourses, the    message of which is focused on general notions of human status such as enlightenment, freedom, liberation, etc.

   In short, although it is certain that contemporary art insists to have its own world that is shut off from the exterior and    thus has become the art of escape and the art for art, we must keep in mind that there is an indispensable voice    demanding justification of its existence. For this reason, ‘Modern myths’ is an attempt to justify various forms of    contemporary art. In other words, the objective of this exhibition is to open up the possibility of communication to attain    a justification of the contemporary art. 

The participating artists (O-bong Kwon, Tae-kyoung Jung, Gi-chul Kwon, Jae-hee Jang, Young-hyeok Jung, Eun-you Jung) have worked with different values and interests (European painting, photograph, Korean painting) over 10 to 20 years. Accordingly, their ways of interpreting one subject vary. But what this exhibition needs us to do is to look for the basic image that is commonly shared by these artists in the context of modern and contemporary art.

(*translated by Yi, Ju-yeon)

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