ART-PRESENTATION:Lee Kun Yong-Form of Now
The founder of the Korean avant-garde art group Space and Time, and a pioneer of Avant-Garde, Lee Kun-Yong is considered to be one of the foremost early champions of performance art in Korea. In the 1960s and 70s, his simple, thought-provoking performance art pieces infused new spiritual energy into a Korean avant-garde art movement then beleaguered on both conceptual and political fronts, and he is called the father of Korean Performance art.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Pace Gallery Archive
The exhibition “Form of Now” focus on the Lee Kun-Yong’s renowned performances and showcase a selection of photographs, paintings, and sculptural work spanning over four decades. Between 1975 and 1980, the artist created roughly fifty performances during which he enacted banal activities of everyday life, such as eating, walking, and counting, accompanying these actions with a series of hand gestures. While on the surface they appear to be reenactments of daily life, it is crucial to understand Lee’s works in a deeper socio-political context of South Korea during this time. Then South Korean president, Park Chung-Hee, declared martial law in 1972, which ended in 1979 with his assassination. In a mission to “protect” South Korea from Communist threats from across the northern border, government surveillance, control, and suppression of civil rights was at an all-time high. Visual art was no exception, and artists working outside the recognized categories of Western style oil painting, ink painting, and sculpture were denied any government support. It is no coincidence then, that Lee’s early performance works involved little more than the repetition of very basic actions that did not attract the attention of the state. Many performances were documented in a methodical way, acting as a visual manual which viewers could easily duplicate step by step. From the very beginning, Lee regarded documentation as an integral part of the expanded life of his artworks. For instance, prior to performing “Logic of Place” at the 4th A.G. show of 1975, and later in an exhibition of 1976, Lee Kun-Yong executed the work in stages at Hongik University while Yi Wan-Ho, an artist and close associate, took a series of documentary photographs. While the performance itself has unquestionable significance, the original photographs taken prior to the official execution of “Logic of Place” demonstrate the significance of the documented image in his work. Lee’s exploration of the possibility of performance as a live medium and one through which to address the uses of photography in Yushin Korea positions him as a premier artist in Korea. The exhibition also presents “The Method of Drawing and Logic of Hands”, photographs shown for the first time on this scale. A recurring subject throughout these performances is Lee’s emphasis on the role of the body as a medium.
Info: Pace Gallery, Itaewon-ro 262, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, Duration: 5/6-24/8/19, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-19:00, www.pacegallery.com
