Unconquered. Critical Visions from South Korea

Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo presents Unconquered. Critical Visions from South Korea, an exhibition exploring criticality as a creative tool in contemporary aesthetic strategies. The exhibition includes artwork by five artists from Seoul –Park Chang-Kyong, Lim Minouk, Beom Kim, Young Whan Bae and Sangdon Kim. Unconquered is organized by Museo Tamayo in Mexico City and Insa Art Space in Seoul.

In the 1980s, a number of social movements and a more profound sense of a collective political consciousness from the masses contributed to a process of democratization in South Korea. This process peeked in 1992 with the end of a 30-year military dictatorship. That decade, South Korea flourished. Exportation of information technologies, and heavy industries, among other goods, began to play a fundamental role, and established South Korea as an advanced economy in the world.

The artists in Unconquered mostly emerged in the 1990s. While they were partially influenced by the 1980s generation directly associated to Minjung Art–a politically oriented arts movement in South Korea characterized for its imagery of the common people, its critique of authoritarianism and imperialism, and its struggle for democratization–this younger group of artists also looked at politically sensitive artistic movements abroad, particularly at new developments in public art. Respectful yet doubtful of the current impact of populist themes and formal strategies in art, the artists in Unconquered created a new, more personal, visual language to make their work. Through a language of reflection rather than reaction, they challenge the political instrumentalization of art.

Unconquered is guest-curated by Heejin Kim, who as the artists is also based in Seoul. She has selected artworks that mostly address on every day events, and that speak from an individual standpoint about the self as a political subject. This self-reflexivity subtlety provokes a new sensibility towards the everyday and a critical vision of one's surroundings.

Unconquered. Critical Visions from South Korea
Kurator: Heejin Kim

Künstler: Park Chang-Kyong, Lim Minouk, Beom Kim, Young Whan Bae, Sangdon Kim.