Revamped award offers assistance to selected artists


The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea is holding its artists-of-the year exhibition as part of its efforts to discover and promote contemporary artists.

The recipients of the 2012 Korea Artist Prize are Gim Hong-sok; Moon Kyung-won and Jeon Joon-ho as a team; Yee Soo-kyung; and Lim Min-ouk. The artists will showcase their new artwork at the exhibition from Aug. 31 to Nov. 11 at the Gwacheon branch of the museum.

The museum will select one artist at the end of the exhibition period in November and provide additional benefits, such as the chance to participate in international art events and the publication of exhibition catalogues. The museum will also offer to buy some of the artist’s artwork and write recommendation letters in the name of the NMOCA president. 

The museum revamped the artist of the year award system to provide both short-term support for multiple artists and long-term support for a selected artist following the practice of the U.K.’s prestigious contemporary art award, the Turner Prize.

The prize is co-organized by SBS Foundation, an art foundation with the Seoul Broadcasting Service company that provides funding for artists.

“We changed the prize system to provide more practical support for artists rather than just giving them the honor of being named the artist of the year,” said Choe Soleh of NMOCA.

The three individual artists and team were selected by a 10-member committee in April and given a prize of 30 million won.

The exhibition opening this week will consist of new works created since April with the new fund.

“The exhibition reflects what the 40-something artists are thinking right now,” said the judges. 

Gim Hong-so, 48, presents three rooms representing one of the keywords “labor,” “metaphor,” and “attitude.” Gim, who has been associated primarily with conceptual art in the forms of installation, performance, sculpture and video, will tell different stories based on a common theme of balancing public interest and individual human rights and dignity.

Moon Kyung-won and Jeon Joon-ho present a cooperative work that seeks to discover the role of art in society through the “News from Nowhere” project conducted over the last two years. Moon and Jeon show a two-year documentary that attempts to find the answer to the role of art through interviews with social leaders and academics, cooperative work with architects, designers and engineers, and video work asking audience of the value of art.

Lim will also talk about prevalent social problems such as urban redevelopment projects and discrimination of minorities in the forms of installation, video and performance.

Lim takes the art further to depict the ideologies and the role of the media that created exaggerated scenes at the funerals of the North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-il and South Korea’s President Park Chung-hee.

Guided tours will be available at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. on weekdays and 1 p.m., 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. on weekends at the NMOCA from Aug. 31 to Nov. 11.

By Lee Woo-young  (wylee@heraldcorp.com)