Curator Kyung An shares insights on the artist collectives featured in Tower Level 2, whose rejection of traditional Korean arts marked the beginning of the Experimental art movement. 

Transcript
Kyung An: I’m Kyung An, Associate Curator of Asian Art, and organizer of this exhibition, "Only the Young". We’re on Tower Level 2, in a gallery titled “A New Beginning.” This gallery presents the initial subjects and inquiries of the Experimental artists. Here, you’ll encounter early Experimental artists groups formed in the 1960s, who aimed to reject the existing art establishment in Korea and to develop a new visual language.

As you walk into the exhibition, you will discover a selection of paintings, drawings, and photographs on the wall to your right and Kim Kulim’s experimental film toward the back of the gallery. Altogether, they introduce you to the social and political changes taking place in the pulsating city of Seoul that not only formed the backdrop for but also directly influenced many of the early Experimental artists. The works in this gallery show how artists renounced the dominant trend of abstract painting at the time, and experimented with unorthodox materials, such as plastic, barbed wires, and lightbulbs, and with unprecedented methods such as performance and film.

In the center of this gallery, you will encounter some artworks that were first exhibited at the "Union Exhibition of Young Korean Artists". This landmark exhibition was organized by three distinct artist groups—Origin, Sinjeon, and Zero Group—and is widely considered to be the first manifestation of Experimental tendencies. The art they created incorporated objects found in daily life and captured the perils and pleasures of urban life. Take a look at the provocative pair of lips by Jung Kangja, the neon lights of Kang Kukjin, or Choi Boonghyun’s abstract face made of plastic hose and drip tubes. True to its rejection of the existing art establishment, the "Union Exhibition" began with a street protest. During the run of the show, some artists also staged the performance "Happening with Plastic Umbrella and Candle", which is regarded as the first instance of performance art in Korea.

As you move around the gallery, you will also see a pipe painting by Lee Seung Jio, the silkscreened gas masks of Song Burnsoo and Ha Chong-Hyun’s work using barbed wire. These artists belonged to the Korean Avant Garde Association, or AG as they were better known, a group founded in 1969 by artists and critics who aimed to contribute to the development of a new Korean avant-garde. To this end, they collectively produced a journal as well as four exhibitions—you will see examples of their journal exhibition catalogue in the vitrine containing archival materials. Many artists worked with AG whilst being part of other smaller groups.

One of the most important collectives from this period is the Fourth Group. The group was formed by artists Kim Kulim, Chung Chanseung, Jung Kangja, as well as non-artist members working in the fields of film, fashion, and design. In their manifesto, the group announced their intention to “liberate the innate state of humanity” and create a new form of art that could unify politics, society, culture, music, film, dance, and literature. Their interdisciplinary collaboration produced many outdoor performances, which were called “happenings.” Their critical stance toward the art establishment and society at large, as well as their use of unprecedented methods, provoked the state, which ended their official activity only after two months.

It’s fascinating to see how some young Korean artists at the dawn of the new decade sought to redefine and reimagine not only what art is, but what art’s role could be in society. This was only the beginning, as their yearning for change would only intensify in the years to come.

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