2020.10.30-2021.1.10
Kyungwoo CHUN

Kyungwoo CHUN photography works, which add the “weight” of relationships and time
CHUN’ s latest three series of work will be presented at MoPS in Korea for the first time in seven years.

The Museum of Photography, Seoul(MoPS) feature Kyungwoo CHUN photography exhibition THE WEIGHT in Korea for the first time in seven years. As an artist who keeps art projects across boundaries of performance and public art CHUN has continued art projects in various cities around the world. Widely known for his diverse and experimental project such as portraiture and performative works interacting with participants, the artist has worked internationally since the late 1990s based in Germany. Among CHUN’s blurred portraits combined with performance and public arts, three recent series of works which had no opportunity to be presented in Korea will be showcased at MoPS. The participants in Nine Editors(2014), The Weight(2016), and the recent Reminiscence(2020) series are not just subjects in front the view finder, but a performer who actively “fill through time and space” based on solidarity with others.
Exhibition THE WEIGHT focuses on the physical and conceptual “weight” of CHUN’s work. As images are overload in everyday life, we lightly consume the information we encounter through photographs, gradually become insensitive to the existence and suffering of others. Against the deluge of digital-image in modern society, especially at a time when COVID-19 makes us reflect more on the true connection CHUN shows that our lives stem from interaction with others, the weight and time of our memories through his work.

The Weight(2016) is organized with the special class students of Rolland Romain high school located in France, for non-Francophone students who arrived only recently in France. CHUN captured the process while students were asked to form teams in order to carry each other as long as they can. The very action of carrying a person on one’s back, supporting each other both physically and psychologically fosters a spirit of mutual assistance. The language of the body takes the place of speech, break down the cultural and linguistic barriers.
The series Nine Editors is a collaborative project with nine editors from a fashion magazine. For this project the artist asked each editors to send him their favourite piece of clothing to his studio, invited them one by one and asked to put on the clothes of the rest editors. The process whose role had changed from styling various models to stand in front of the camera as a subject, 9 editors wearing the weight of difference were photographed by CHUN during 9 minutes.
New series of the year, Reminiscence is a single-channel video of the artist which film the process of elderly participants listening to music and recalling the most precious moments of their lives, cooperation with the Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art in Gdansk, Poland. The weight of life and time are reflected in their faces through the personal stories they reminiscence with their eyes closed.
Exhibition THE WEIGHT will be on view from October 30 to January 10, 2021 in MoPS. Moreover, in this December CHUN’s photography book will be co-published with the graphic designer Willem van Zoetendaal, one of the well-known photography book producer and publisher from the Netherlands.

Kyungwoo CHUN
Kyungwoo CHUN (Seoul, 1969~) artist based in Europe, has been expanding the field of photography since the mid-1990s by presenting photographs combined with performance and public art as a communication medium with participants. The oeuvre of Kyungwoo CHUN has been presented in many solo and group exhibitions and represented in major museum collections including Musée Mac/Val in Vitry-sur-Seine, Huis Marseille stichting voor fotografie in Amsterdam, Los Angeles County Museum of Art(LACMA), Museet for Fotokunst Odense, Laznia Center for Contemporary Art in Gdańsk, The Museum of Photography Seoul, National Museum of Contemporary Art in Korea(MMCA).

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