1945–1999 Online Platform for Korean Modern and Contemporary Art

A Study of Korean Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2003–2005): ‘Site-Specificity’ and articulating the ‘Here and Now’

The evolution of exhibitions at the Korean Pavilion of the Venice Biennale during its first decade illustrates a broader shift in contemporary Korean art amid the advent of globalization, from a deliberate presentation of tradition to a gradual detachment from it. While the inaugural and second exhibitions drew on traditional aesthetics rooted in Korean identity to assert the distinctiveness of Korean art within the universalizing discourse of global contemporary art, the third and fourth editions of the pavilion began to transcend the conventional binary of Korean tradition versus Western modernity. These later exhibitions located Korean artistic specificity in the immediacy of contemporary popular culture and increasingly engaged with themes of multiculturalism and nomadism, both of which challenge and relativize the dichotomy between the national and the global. In this context, the globalization of Korean art, foregrounded by the launch of the Gwangju Biennale in 1995 and the establishment of the Korean Pavilion in Venice, marked a shift away from concerns over temporal disparity with Western art and the imperative to demonstrate cultural authenticity. Instead, it initiated a more dynamic inquiry into identity and site-specificity, shaped by the interplay of differences rather than the assertion of cultural distinctiveness. In 2003, Kim Hong-hee, then the director of Ssamzie Space, was appointed as the commissioner of the Korean Pavilion. Beginning with Park Kyungmi, the commissioner of the previous edition, the responsibilities of the role have increasingly been fulfilled by professional curators. This edition was also the first to feature a titled exhibition, Landscape of Differences. While deliberately distancing the exhibition from issues of tradition or regional identity, Kim instead centered on the “landscape of differences.” Here, her curatorial aim was to present a relative “site-specificity”, rather than an essentialist or fixed notion of specificity. The exhibition “sought to construct the identity of the Korean Pavilion not through references to “the East” or “tradition,” but rather through the site-specific characteristics of the pavilion.”1 The specificity of Korean art is no longer defined geographically or territorially, but rather through the manner and attitude with which it engages with a given “site.” The exhibition rejects binary distinctions, such as tradition vs. modernity or Korean vs. international, and instead foregrounds the contemporaneity of Korean art, shaped by the entanglement of these very differences and tensions. This approach is presented as an effective strategy for articulating a Korean identity within an international context. “The concept of “Landscape of Differences” serves not only as the thematic core of the Korean Pavilion exhibition, but also as a conceptual framework for articulating an evolving Korean identity. The goal is to define the pavilion’s identity not through regional tradition or an exoticized notion of Eastern-ness, but through works firmly grounded in the ‘here and now,’ capturing a form of contemporaneity that is simultaneously traditional and modern, Korean and global.”2 Whereas earlier globalization discourses in Korean art assumed a clear distinction between the global and the local and sought to mediate between them, Kim Hong-hee’s curatorial vision challenges this separation as artificial. She argues that Korean art is already inherently hybrid, at once traditional and modern, local and global. The newly coined term Glocalism, which she applies to this exhibition, should be understood in this context: the global and the local are not opposites, but inherently intertwined and interdependent. The three participating artists, Bahc Yiso, Chung Seoyoung, Whang Inkie, engaged with the spatial, structural, and institutional specificity of the Korean Pavilion in the Giardini Park by reconfiguring both its interior and exterior with their interventions. Whang Inkie created Like a Breeze, a fragmented digital landscape painting inspired by Yi Seong-gil’s Painting of the Nine Scenic Views on Mount Wuyi (1592), using plastic film, mirror shards, and silicone over the glass windows and walls of the pavilion that overlook the Venetian scenery. Chung Seoyoung intervened in the architectural structure by wrapping the steel columns inside the exhibition space and elevating them five centimetres above the floor, creating A New Pillar. She also presented A New Life, a sculptural piece created by transforming the motorcycle's back seat into a handcart that traversed the boundary between the pavilion’s interior and exterior. All three works adopted a conceptual and meditative approach, responding to the Korean Pavilion as an architectural "site." Outside the pavilion, Bahc Yiso’s installation Venice Biennale took the form of a loosely assembled wooden frame set atop four basins filled with stones, gravel, and tiles. One side of the frame displayed miniature carvings of the Arsenale and the twenty-six national pavilions in the Giardini, all rendered at approximately the same scale. This work critically considered the Venice Biennale as an institutional "site," offering a satirical commentary on the Eurocentrism and cultural hegemony deeply ingrained within the contemporary art system. The commissioner of the Korean Pavilion in 2005 was Kim Sunjung, then deputy director of the Art Sonje Center. Titled Secret beyond the door, the exhibition was notable for its unusually large number of participating artists, fifteen in total, in sharp contrast to the previous editions. The roster included Kim Beom, Kim Sora, Gimhongsok, Moon Sungsic, Park Kiwon, Park SeJin, Bahc Yiso, Bae Young-whan, Sung Nakyoung (Nakion), Sung Nakhee, Oh Heinkuhn, Rhii Jewyo, Jung Yeondoo, Choi Jeonghwa, and Ham Jin. The artists ranged in age from their twenties to forties and represented a broad spectrum of media. The result was an exhibition that appeared chaotic and diffuse, presenting a collection of individual and highly personal works from which no overarching thematic or stylistic coherence could easily be drawn. This exhibition sought to capture the “here and now” of contemporary Korean art as it had evolved since the 1990s, no longer constrained by binary frameworks such as universality versus particularity or international versus local. Kim Sunjung explained her rationale for taking this unconventional approach: "Although Korean artists began to be introduced on the international stage from the 1990s onward, their work was often only partially represented in biennales and large-scale exhibitions. This exhibition was conceived with a strong emphasis on proactively showcasing Korean art and providing a multifaceted view of its current state. Given the limitations of the small exhibition space, we tried to articulate a trajectory beginning with the convergence of modernism and Minjung art, continuing into the present moment."3 Jang Sunhee further elaborates that unlike the 1980s, which were polarized between modernism and Minjung art, “the Korean art scene in the post-1990s era underwent significant diversification as a result of globalization. This shift was marked by the professionalization of curators, the proliferation of biennales and artist residency programs, increased crossovers between high art and subcultures, and the rise of alternative spaces and youth-led artistic movements, particularly around the area centered around Hongik University.” Jang emphasizes that “Kim’s exhibition focused on presenting a compact yet comprehensive overview of the diverse trajectories that have shaped Korean art since the 1990s.”4 This exhibition positioned Bahc Yiso and Choi Jeonghwa as two central figures in Korean art since the 1990s. Bahc Yiso is recognized as foundational to its conceptual trajectory, while Choi Jeonghwa represents the inception of a Korean Pop aesthetic that blurs the line between popular culture and fine art. Focusing on these two figures, the exhibition space, both inside and out, showcased the diverse practices of Korean artists active since the 1990s. Rather than adhering to the binary logic of globalization discourse, the exhibition focused solely on the diversity and individuality of Korean art, showing little regard for prevailing notions of universality as defined by contemporary international art. Perhaps such universal categories, whether national, ethnic, local, or of course global, have become too broad, loose, and inadequate for defining contemporary art in the age of globalization. What emerged from the interstices of this seemingly chaotic exhibition was not a grand, overarching or collective “secret beyond the door,” but rather a series of micro-level, independent, and idiosyncratic “spectacles.” This unbounded and liberated space appeared almost detached from the urgent and weighty task that had long burdened prior Korean Pavilion exhibitions—the mandate to globalize Korean art.