SEOJUNG ART is pleased to announce The Order of Time at SEOJUNG ART Seoul, a two-person exhibition featuring Hong Soun and Juergen Staack from 15 November to 24 December. Hong Soun, who layers generations’ memories and experiences in his compositions to blend landscapes of events, both approach time not as an inherent order but as a form of experience shaped by our perception, and Juergen Staack, known for his poetic reinterpretation of the boundaries between language and image by focusing on the essence of the original. The exhibition seeks to illuminate how two artists weave the meaning of time, drawing viewers into points that touch deep within our perception.

Installation view 1 Courtesy of SEOJUNG ART and the artist

The title of the exhibition, The Order of Time, is inspired by Italian physicist Carlo Rovelli’s The Order of Time (2017). He subverts challenges the conventional notion that time flows sequentially, instead proposing its relativity, nonlinearity, and indviduality individuality. In other words, he suggests time is not a primordial order but rather a relational construct between events, shaped by our perception as a form of experiential manifestation emerging from those relationships. In this way, time manifests differently along each trajectory, making its essence difficult to define clearly. However, as long as our perceptions exits, time flows distinctly through our lives.

Installation view 2 Courtesy of SEOJUNG ART and the artist

In this exhibition, Hong Soun perceives time as a convergence of events from various eras and places. In his Over there..days series, the artist translates fragments of his everyday life onto the canvas, layering them with events from the other side of the world encountered on the same day through the internet and foreign news outlets. Through the process of applying and removing masking tape at that point, the artist utilizes the space between the lines in a three-dimensional way, sensing the boundary between reality and the unreality. The Tale of Certain Country series, which reveals the layered passage of time, overlays a historical photograph of slaves laboring in the sea off the coast of Liberia, Africa, with a photograph of the artist on a leisurely day by the sea. Each person’s time in the common place of the sea confronts two realities from completely separate dimensions, leaving an indelible trace of events that must not be forgotten and layering them to remember on the canvas.

Juergen Staack, Light Sketch “글로리오사 수퍼바”, white vase (Meissen), notebook, photography and 2 photographies,44 x 65 cm, 2024

Alongside this, Jurgen Staack captures his contemplation of time as an ecological entity, exploring things that change according to the movement-or stillness-of time through his medium. The artist suggests a direct experience of time through Light Sketch. The work allows us to infer the passage of time through the shadow cast by sunlight on objects; though the shadow briefly lingers on a notebook spread open in front of a vase before disappearing, this fleeting, poetic moment lives on eternally within our perception. Additionally, Moiré transforms the fleeting visual distortions that arise from overlapping fabric patterns into an aesthetic tool. It sculpturally encapsulates the beauty of anomaly and transience in moments regarded as distorted images. While Moiré captures the aesthetic value of irregular forms, his SOLAR COPY series records the shadows of mutant plants in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert, metaphorically documenting ecological shifts within the dimension of time.

This exhibition is being held in collaboration with the Konrad Fischer Galerie in Germany. Since its establishment in Düsseldorf in 1967, Konrad Fischer Galerie has played a leading role in conceptual art and minimalism, securing an important place in the history of contemporary art and presenting innovative trends in the art world. The gallery has worked with prominent contemporary artists such as Bruce Nauman, Carl Andre, Candida Höfer, Oldenburg & Van Bruggen, and Thomas Ruff, and continues to lead the global art scene by showcasing their works and providing in-depth insights into their artistic practices.

Within the propositions highlighted in The Order of Time, we exist within ‘time’ and live through it by proving our existence. Time, which accumulates and transforms our experiences, has long served as both philosophical inspiration and a core theme in the study of human existence. Time exists in different forms along each trajectory, making it difficult to clearly define its essence. However, as long as perception exists, time flows distinctly through our lives. By tracing the different unique paths depicted by these two artists who share the common time of this exhibition, the audience will deeply experience the essence of time they convey.

SEOJUNG ART Seoul
12, Bongeunsa-ro 47-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Korea
+82 1644 1454

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