Pochon¡¯s High Road to Asian Art
By Bridget O¡¯BrienStaff Reporter, The Korea Times
 Yoon Jin-sup, general artistic director for Pocheon Asian Art Festival |
Yoon Jin-sup, artistic director and international curator for such events as the Seoul International Media Art Biennale, has taken the helm as general artistic director of this inaugural festival in Pochon, a small city north of Seoul.
Despite a small budget, Yoon has tackled his job with such enthusiasm that he has managed to gather 117 artists from 16 countries across Asia including Cyprus, Turkey, Japan, China, India, Bangladesh even Southeast Asia¡¯s mixed culture neighbor Australia.
Yoon told The Korea Times he was approached last year by the festival¡¯s organizing committee to be artistic director. `` But they were asking me to do it on a budget that is at most 20 percent of that of the Seoul International Media Art Biennale. I mean, that¡¯s a very difficult proposition, but it¡¯s my temperament to be positive, so I said ¡®Let¡¯s do it!¡¯¡¯¡¯
Previously, Yoon worked for the 1st and 3rd Gwangju Biennale, the 25th Sao Paulo Biennale, and as commissioner for the 2005 India Triennale to name a few, all of which have given him a particularly international perspective on contemporary Asian art.
 'Museum Project #149 Series of Nirvana' (2001) by Kim Atta |
Efforts to portray the historical aspects of this city artistically has resulted in richly textured arrangements of artwork from artists of the Pochon area and from those who are better known in the packed art world of Seoul and beyond.
Yoon congratulates Pochon mayor Park Yoon-kuk for his desire to make his city a cultural base for the region, adding that activating the arts is especially meaningful in an area so close to the DMZ.
The festival¡¯s theme is ``Road/Route.¡¯¡¯ As Yoon says, road implies life, and with this the festival hopes it conveys the sadness and struggles in life that are part of Korean modern history.
``For the `road¡¯ theme, I was recalling how I was so deeply moved by the Italian director Frederico Felini with his film `La Strada¡¯ and, similarly, the 1960s Korean film `The Road to Bampo,¡¯ by Lee Man-hee, both of which are reminders of the road of life included in the film screening section,¡¯¡¯ he said.
And, with the idea of healing the hurt endured through the troubled history of the region, Yoon¡¯s more unique contribution is his invitation to locals to submit old family portrait photographs to recall the feeling of bygone days.
``In the 1960s when I was young, we had so many of these photos in frames hanging on an angle on the walls of our home, but these days they have disappeared because people prefer the tidy apartment life now.¡¯¡¯
The wall of these nostalgic portraits in brown wooden frames, showing the silent faces of those who have known the Pochon area best, is sure to move audiences as much as the stunning pieces from world-renowned Asian artists.
``Is Asia Burning Now?¡¯¡¯ is how Yoon titles his catalogue introduction, in which he observes the rise in Asian art¡¯s popularity at international art events but still an imbalance in their representation.
As Yoon says, in this exhibition there are many pieces that show Asian ways of thought and emotions as well as the history and traditions of the various countries.
``Culture always moves like clouds in the sky. We can¡¯t say it using words, we just enjoy art by itself. When the culture fights for us, the world will show only peace to us,¡¯¡¯ he said.
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Where: Pocheon Banwol Art Hall. How to get there: By bus number 138 it takes about 40 minutes from Uijongbu station on subway line no. 2. Once you get to Pocheon City Hall you can take a taxi to Banwol Art Hall, which takes about 5 minutes. |
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