Present Encounters : Papers from the conference of the Second Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane, 1996

Soyeon Ahn Korean Art and its Identity in the International Context It was very impressive of the Singapore Art Museum and the Fukuoka Art Museum to research and introduce Asian art in their institutions. It is an inevitable task for the institutions and curators in the Asia-Pacific reg ion to promote the art of our region by ourselves. It was a good lesson to me and to Korea. Taking a step aside from talking about how we treat our art i n our own reg ion , I 'd like to talk about some aspects wh ich cou ld come up when our art is shown to the Western world. I wi ll present Korean art as an example of Asian and Pacifi c art because I think that as non-Euro-Americans we share the same problem of globalisation. I want to consider how our art is received by the Western art world and what problems it cou ld present. Also, what should our next step be to introduce ourselves to the others. I think that the most urgent concern of Korean artists and curators i n current times is how to launch Korean art into foreign countries, specially into Euro-Ameri can countries. There have actua lly been several remarkable exh ibitions in recent years which have focused on Korean contemporary art, organised not only by Koreans but also by Western art institutions. This is regarded as the result of the accumulated capacity of Korean contemporary art itself. Since 1 91 O when Western oil pai nting was introduced to Korea, Korean art has imitated , anachronistically, all the past Western styles up to the end of the 1 950s. But from the end of the 1 950s, Korean art has kept pace with world art movements through the various practices and reflections on art and its own identity duri ng the last forty years . Now Korean art has attained the moment of speaking about its orig inality with its own voice . Moreover, through the severa l i nternational-scale events held in Korea in recent years, Koreans have become aware of the importance of cultural exchanges and proud of our potential to make a contri bution to global cu lture. There are several examples of international events in Korea such as 'The I nternational Contemporary Art Exhi bition' and 'The I nternational Scu l pture Symposium' held on the occasion of the 1 988 Seoul Olympic Games. There have also been some significant art exhibitions such as the important events of the '1 993 Taejon I nternational Exposition '. And especially in the last year, Korea inaugurated its own pavilion at the Ven i ce Biennale , and launched an i nternational art biennale in Kwangj u , wh ich is the unique i nternationally scaled event i n Asia. As the result of these events, Korea is emerging as a new centre of artistic exchanges between East and West, but also it is drawing attention from the world art commun ity to its own contemporary art. On the other hand , the enthusiasm of Korean art for advancing into the world can be regarded as a reaction to a kind of cultural totalitarianism caused by the expansion of capitalism, the revolution of information and the domination of world-wide market systems. Actua lly Korea is faced with the opening of its doors to the world art market from next year. Many artists, art dealers and curators in Korea are worrying about cultural colonialism and there are loud voices aski ng for reinforcement of the competitive power of Korean culture and art. Because Korea has suffered cultural invasion and oppression throughout its history, we have a kind of obsession to build up an international cultural relationshi p and , at the same time, to maintai n our own cultural identity. The Western art world is also ready to receive a new vision of art from Asia and the Pacific in this phase of plu ralism. The Western art world is expecti ng a new sou rce of art to substitute and develop their monotonous direction of modernism . Now, I 'd like to introduce you some Korean artists who are frequently presented to the Western art world through international exhi bitions i n recent years. I want to invite you to guess which points are appealing to the West. I n my opinion they have certain aspects which appeal to the point of view of Europeans or Americans who are expecting some d ifferences and the exoticism of the Orient; at the same time, they have their own voices and actively participate in the current issues of contemporary art, without just borrowi ng motifs or material from traditional Korea . Jheon Soo-Cheon was a representative artist for the inaugural Korean pavilion i n the last Venice Biennale and he received a special prize there. He also participated in the Korean Art Show of the first Kwangj u Biennale and the Sao Paulo Biennale. The main components of his recent works are 'To-Woo' which means clay icons which reminds us of the buried statues in 97