The Hwaseong Culture & Tourism Foundation opened a permanent space at Insa Art Center in Insa-dong in central Seoul last week to promote the city’s tourism and support artists based in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province.
The inaugural exhibition, “Mars to Insadong," which plays on Hwaseong’s name also meaning "Mars," introduces three media artists: Kim Ryu, Yang Young-shin and Lim Seung-kyun.
The artists were selected by the foundation with an aim to explore experimental approaches and new artistic possibilities through media art, according to the foundation.
“I believe that what is most personal is also what is most original — and ultimately what resonates globally. I wanted to present Hwaseong artists who express themselves without compromising with others,” said Ahn Pil-yun, CEO of the Hwaseong Culture & Tourism Foundation.
“We hope the exhibition will help Hwaseong artists reach a wider audience in Insadong.”
Lim showed the media installation “Tide Pool,” inspired by the tidal flats in Hwaseong on the west coast, where a US military bombing range operated from 1951 to 2005. The work combines materials sourced from nature including stone with electrically powered light.
“I have long been interested in Korea’s tidal flats — their pristine natural environment and the histories shaped by human interaction. I intended to create those trajectories through installation works,” he said Wednesday.
Yang Young-shin, living in Dongtan, a new town with high-tech residential skyscrapers located within Hwaseong, showed the media work “Our Nature d,” created in the form of a traditional Korean folding screen.
Finding life in Dongtan unfamiliar, the artist said he created the media work by filming scenes from across the city.
Kim, the youngest artist among the three, explores the relationship between technology and humanity, with a particular focus on questions of autonomy within AI and algorithmic systems. His installation “Deus Ex Machina” reveals feelings of fear and uncertainty surrounding AI.
The exhibition opened Wednesday, running through Monday on the sixth floor at the Insa Art Center. The foundation's promotional venue, presenting Hwaseong’s cultural and tourism assets as a permanent platform of the city, is on the third floor.
yunapark@heraldcorp.com
