#9 Stories Transform into Art

# This is art too?

Many get lost in the foreign world of contemporary art. Even if one observes a famous piece that is supposed to cost fortunes to acquire, it is not easy to understand why it is a work of artistic value. Deemed to be expensive and difficult to understand, contemporary art has been conceived as a league of their own. Yet, deserted museum seem to be attracting audience once again. For whom are they coming to see?

# Storytelling artists wake up the museum

Korea Artist Prize attracts around five thousand people a day. Seventh event since the inauguration, Korea Artist Prize unearths and supports proficient artists representing Korea. Especially the four artists— siren eun young jung, Okin Collective, Jae Ho Jung, and Minja Gu— sponsored by SBS Culture Foundation are acclaimed for the stories they unfold regarding problems in society. What are those stories?

# Art deals with Korea’s today

Four artists in the spotlight, they are earning empathy from the audience by examining various problems faced by society in this present moment.

Huge urban system was established through rapid development, but how do the alienated fare? In order to answer this question, Okin Collective focuses on the relationship between individual and community. Jae Ho Jung, who has depicted the dark side of the city, exposes the duality of modernization by shooting a rocket up the museum. Minja Gu, who questioned the meaning of life, the one everyone is interested in, does a performance piece of flying to Fiji and living two days a day around the International Date Line. On the other hand, siren eun young jung is coordinating Yeoseong Gukgeuk project – the theatrical genre that vanished in history where female actors would play all the parts. What story is siren eun young jung trying to tell with the actors of Yeoseong Gukgeuk, jolly grannies who were supposed to be idolized in the 50′s and 60’s?

# Folks, join us!

We may be looking at reality through the lens determined by society. Everything that lies beyond that structure tends to fade away. Contemporary artists examine those lens itself and shed a light into a place where no one tend to. Through the tales that these four artists tell, we invite you to Korea’s contemporary art.