Gimhongsok

b. 1964, born and based in Seoul, Korea

After studying at Seoul National University, Gimhongsok was graduated from the Kunst Akademie Duesseldorf in Germany. Gimhongsok deconstructs the identities of the language, the behavior and the social system which are shaped within the society. Gimhongsok concentrates has devised diverse ways of intervention into the process where the general public and the society recognize something as art, and the entire distribution system of the so-called ‘art’. Despite this rather heavy theme, Gimhongsok approaches his art-making with humor and irony, thus giving us visual pleasure.

Oval Talk, currently on view in this Biennale, is a large oval-shaped object telling a mythic epic of national founders who were born out of eggs. Virtually taking the shape of an ‘egg’, this object is a metaphor of the globe or the mythic epic itself. The epic recited by the artist himself, however, is his own recreation of the existing Korean ancient myths, that is, a fake mythic epic. This process reveals how the original narrative of a culture, its identity and the social context is lost, de-mystified and appropriated by other cultures and individuals in the course of translation.

- Gimhongsok, LOVE, 2004, steel, 155x160x80cm, exhibition view at Artsonje Center, Seoul

- Gimhongsok, Oval Talk, 2000, polyester resin, audio equipment, CD, 145x145x165cm, Collection of POSCO Museum

- Gimhongsok, Heromaniac, 2000, performance, photo documents, performance view at Gallery Hyundai, Seoul, 2000