The Yeonhee-Dong 195 Residency Project

Wednesday, 18 July 2007

My appreciation

Dear everyone,

I would just like to say thank you for your collaboration, generousity, hospitality and enthusiasm. Even after our departure from Seoul, I have enjoyed following the blog and appreciated all your kind words and poetry! Even seeing all the collaborative labour that you have put into the de-installation of the exhibition makes me happy. I have been happy to see so many people become friends. This has all been very inspiring.

It is interesting to see how we all have been able to realize the full potential and effect of our intense time together only afterwards - I am thinking of all your blog greetings and the entries by Power and Erlend, which represent insight and appreciation that could only be understood after stepping back from the social maelstrom which we were part of during the Yeonhee-dong project.

I'd say that this trip to Seoul was one of the best times of my life. It was hectic and hard, but it was so much fun, wonderful people and friends, amazing food, endless nights, saunas, hotels, parties, more food, work, meetings, encounters, shopping and much more.

I hope that we will somehow all be able to meet again somewhere soon... let's all keep in touch.

I will finish a preface and the photo collage (with Bjørn) for the poster-publication. Then I am going to follow the preparations to the Seoul City Museum-project. I am sure that you will all make more out of that than we ever managed to do in three weeks in Yeonhee-dong!

Thank you everybody.

Always, Jan

Deinstalling: Part 4 final!!

Deinstalling: Part3

Deinstalling: Part2

Deinstalling: Part1

Sooho, Junho, Junho's painter friend, Taeeun, Taeeun's friend and Changhyun (Daniel) came to help us to deinstall the whole show....and our neighbor (security gear guy) joined later eve to clean up. reall really thank you for all of your help!! esp security gear guy cos he arranged taking the bricks away for Junho and he is also keeping the MDF boards and trestles in his storage for next show in case we might need them. isnt it sounds perfect collaboration?!

Tuesday, 17 July 2007

the final pics&text by kyungahham

어떻게 기록하는가는 어떻게 보여주길 원하는지를결정한다. 혼돈도 관찰하는 자에게 드러난다.역사는 반드시 누군가에 의해 씌여지고.... 해석되어진다.

전시장내 구조물과 무언가를 하는 사람들을 다큐멘트하였다. 벽에 드리워진 사람들과 사물, 구조들의 그림자를 따라 그리고 시간을기록하였다. 분명 네 명의 방문객들은 사각의 테이블 각 면에 앉아 함께 일하고 있었는데 벽에 드리워진 그들의 그림자는사면의 벽에 각기 떨어져 드리워져있었다. 나의 다큐먼트는 사실과는 다른 사각지대를 드러냈다. 객관성도, 역사도, 질서도,혼돈도, 정직성도 모두 상대적인것인가

Monday, 16 July 2007

Soojung's text in three sentences

바벨탑.

나는 할말이 없다 그러나

나는 한가지만 말하고 싶다 그러나

나는 많은 말을 하고 싶다 그러나......

Babel Tower

I have nothing to say but

I want to say only one thing but

I wish I could say a lot but......

꾸벅.

English version of Jaejun 's text in three sentences

between

"Opening the relationships. Jooyoung, Jan, Bjorn, Power and other participants open up their relationships. Our values are put in the relationships through sharing the significance of unification. Being covered by relationships. We are drawn, moved, used, and added on the values of unification. We see the community from 195 as a group."

Special thanks to

Kyung-Jin Woo, Yoon Geunju

Translated by Eunhee Park

Late Blogging!

yeh..... I konw it is too late to start blogging but I realized that today is the last day for 195 blogging...
Even I'm not sure I am doing right or not ....I'm too beginner....

You Know What?.....
Actually I miss all of you guys , all the 195 things soooooooooo much
It was Great memory (include car accident in Hong Dae :))

Oh. It's time to go to work~
I think I write more after I come back 'in' today

State of exceptional experimentation [updated with example]

Even after three, four days after leaving Seoul and the project space I am still too close to the situation and the workshop itself to be able to take a step back and with a deep breath analyze the situation we were in and to summarize it. With that said I doubt that this will ever be the case anyhow in the near future. I'm a bit lost in space. Erlend has though already identified many points of the process and has grasped them in his posting.

One of his points in his most recent blogpost is “The art product as excuse for setting up social relationships”. What a great deal many art councils and supporting foundations of arts has already grasped is that social relationships within the arts is the ground foundation towards a healthy, generous and flexible art world, and opening up the national borders for social relationships and exchanges with residencies and travel grants for artists and curators across borders encourages and generates new cross fertilizations. What art councils and foundations still not yet have grasped in its total is that this does not always come with a product of art that one is able to see or touch. Many national governments still finds the fact hard to comprehend that if you hand out cash to artists and curators that enable them to travel, drink, have fun and to engage in different relational situations, it actually increases the gross national product at the end of the day in a fruitful relationship as weird as it may seem. Culture hardly ever comes on the top priorities of governments unless it is about a “cultural revolution” or something (again with those communistic references…). Foundations are always looking into ready products and measurable results in a close knitted relationship; value for money.

Thankfully though (as strange as it seems to be writing this after complaining about bumps in my back from various hard floors) there are not so many founders to this project – which gave us the luxurious freedom to experiment. This is most likely the most intriguing result of our work shop and it needs to be emphasized. Had we had more obligations towards expecting foundations about measurable results there would have been less result when it comes to hard core experimentation and an increased process base. We would have been worried about the documentation images, how the texts were formulated and would not have been able to as freely engage and develop the project – which in one way was all about confusion or with uncertainty as well as a leveling of positions, art works and artists. A confusion about authorship, but also a generousity to pick up a thread in someone's piece and turn it into something else - in a joint collaboration. Who had done what in the end became both uninteresting and blurred.

The state of uncertainty and total confusion that in a sort of way we experienced can be transformed into a thought about “creative chaos”. I’m not yet altogether sure what went on for three weeks in Seoul really, but that it was creative is for sure, and chaotic with all certainty. A state of process and exception which was experimental to say the least. It really stirred up a lot of thoughts about hierarchies and powerstructures in a country where refined tones in the Korean launguage itself, developed over centuries, show awe and respect towards someone with higher "rank" than one self.

It is emblematic that we have not really written on the blog about the art pieces in the show - it has been a bit problematic since we have avoided to have singular art pieces in the show that could be mistaken for "masterpieces". I'll make use of an example that maybe will clearify a bit. While writing on this blog in Yeonhee-Dong 195 I also had my Skype-account up and my artist friend back in Stockholm, Allen Grubesic asked me how things went in Seoul. While explaining that we were constantly adding artists from Korea to the workshop I said it was an open call for anyone interested to participate and that the concept was about interference in other's work. Allen picked up on this and wanted to throw in something that might be picked up by someone. He sent a quickly made design with two golfers in the foreground about to scream fore, and a little man in the back ground who was either about to be hit by a ball or to be hit by the golf clubs. The style reminded me about the poster for antoher project that had come up the very same day for the video project by Eunji Cho. This project is about the so called "national gymnastic song" that all the Korean people are well acquainted with since all the school kids started the day by doing gymnastics to this very tune. Bjørn Kowalski Hansen made the lay-out for a poster and the musician Kyunghyun Min made a remake of the song that was played during the pre-opening and filmed by Eunji and for the opening the video was runned on a monitor. Visitors who didn't participate in the pre-opening were a bit confused since they wondered if the shot were taken during the opening or not, but it couldn't have since the wall behind the "gymnasts" were completely changed...

I printed Allen's contribution in blackanwhite and hung it temporarily next to the poster. Jooyoung asked about the new contribution and she picked up on it - she asked me out of the blue how the heck Allen could know so much about the Korean society - she obviously read more into the image than I could even begin to comprehend. I knew from Allen that Koreans are madly in love with golfing (which was why he decided to make this design), and I suspected that it was a sport done by the "upper class" much like in Europe but had no idea about Allen's deeper connections and told her that I knew nothing. Jooyoung triggered loads of thoughts - to a Korean film (that I forgot the name of, help me Jooyoung?) and she wanted to add a word that seems to be in a way knit to the National gymnastic song in a way, at least conceptually, namely the word 입신양명 that means "Rising in the world and gaining fame". This word is something that has been used as a kind of "slogan" for the Korean people for a long time, remembering them about what should be done in the future. She told me that a sociologist had made research about this word and how it was used and that he came to a conclusion about another "slogan" used in the old days (can't remember again here Jooyoung...), when Korea was a dynasty of emperors, which was a totally different, about being happy with the little things that maybe more to the point for Korean life. Quite the opposite of the "Rising-word". We talked about this for a while and I think I was the one who convinced her to in the end add the "Rising in the world-word" instead of the older slogan, making it a tad more ironic and quickly read. She decided to add the English translation too. Bjørn Kowalski again was called upon to add some layout - he added the colour and the ring around the image, and Jan Christensen made a layer on the text, making it a little more difficult to read and comprehend in its total. When the poster came two days later an art piece was made with multiple artists behind it. It is no longer important who made what in the singular piece - it was about a process that was successful in making a piece that we all agreed upon made perfect sense in this setting - putting a finger to exactly the hierarchy-issues, the "flat structure" within the project, the openness towards different interpretations and lastly putting a finger upon the reason why an artist would like to be the single "author" of an art piece - to go out into the world and rising fame, sometimes like a golfer swinging his/hers club towards the "little guy". It is also emblematic that the result is a poster lying in the gallery for people to take. "Low art" with a generous twist.

There is a radical force in the fact that even though every one was confused within the experiment, that no one really knew what the heck was happening and what would be the result of it but even so continued to work side by side without complains but instead cheerful enthusiasm. There are only two reasons for continuation when something like that happens: love or/and a curiosity and awareness for the fundamental interest the project in itself has the potentiality of producing in the end. I believe both reasons were manifest in this project with a double grip. Together we succeeded in creating an environment of love, respect, equality and creativeness within a bubble of our own. I.e.: without obligations towards an art product or a result able to be measured or weighed. (and NO, I did not just now have a spliff or anything, I really mean this!)

It would be truly intriguing to take this creative chaos to the next level in yet another step of the research project about how this work in progress is managed. To be able to make an exchange in yet another level, to host a continued workshop in Norway/Sweden/Germany with the same Korean group and with the same intentions as to interfere with each other, obtaining a “flat powerless structure” whatever that means and increase creative, artistic chaos into yet another tweaked situation for a deepened “result” for whatever that means. The outcome of the Seoul workshop are deep friendships, sense of belonging with each other, and a very long line of both missed and established and yet to come opportunities of interest, faith and future engagements – and not least importantly a taste of something completely different and quite new. I’d like to propose to warp it yet another round with 1000 ideas and 100.000 combinations if it would be possible. Not saying this would be resulting in something measurable at all – I doubt it – so the possibilities of getting funding for a project like this would be rather slim, unless there are some official out there with an exceptional open mind and true passion for art. Not sure my body, mind, soul and heart can take yet another round of confusion though, being the total control-freak I am. But I’m nore than willing to give it a shot because of the double grip of a love/passion and awareness about the serious state of exceptional experimentation that surprisingly enough (to a sceptic like myself) opened up before my eyes like a utopian abyss - unexplored and extremely fascinating.

The final text by Jinjoo Kim

연희동 195에서,

프리 오프닝(2007년 7월 3일)의 소리,

라디오를 타고 흐르는(2007년 7월 4일-15일), 동등, 연결, 관계, 끊임 없이, 시작!

In Yeonhee-dong 195,
The pre-opening(3/July/2007) sounds
Flow from the radio, 4/July/2007-15/July/2007, equal, link, relation, without a pause, start!

On 15th of July after 6pm

Around 5pm today at the space i was about to wrapping things up. some of works are already taken down by itself e.g Eunji's poster!!. Junho taken his drawing and wood works down. thanks god that we got nothing stolen from the 26 x catalogues of Seoul City Museum's loan. As they are need to be returned to them by next week. otherwise i will not have my passport back.

A bunch of Sooho's friends from his church came to see the show with a big van and some others from Local. while they are looking around the show, Sooho and his designer friends are seriously readlng Norwegian news papers. they even wanted take some of the paper with them afterwards!! do you understand the language?! i said YES. im sure they 'd start learning Norewegian soon huh!!

The final text by Sooho Jo both Korean and English

1. 전시 자체가 하나의 커다란 작품.
2. 살아있는듯 했다. 우리가 그리고 그 공간이, 공간안에 모든 것들이, 작가들에 모든 의해서.
3. 우리는 좋은 친구들은 갖게 되었다.

1.Exhibition itself is a big art work.
2.We and the space, even the tiny fragments of the space, all seemed alive by artists.
3.We got many good friends.

The final Pics& Text by JaeJun Lee

I got the pics from the architect Jaejun lee by email today and his short comments about the show: between

"관계를 열다. 주영, 얀, 비욘, 그리고 파워, 그리고 다른 모든 참여자들과 함께 서로간의 관계를 열어본다. 관계에 놓이다. 함께할 수 있는 가치를 공유하면서 새로운 관계 속에 저마다의 가치가 놓여진다. 관계에 묻히다. 함께한 가치위에 그려지고, 옮겨지고, 사용되며 또다시 더해간다. 객체는 사라지고 전체로 존재한다. 그렇게 195에서 커뮤니티를 본다.

special thanks to 우경진, 윤근주"

these pics are need to be used for the part of our final publicaition. his text in English verison will be sent to Jan V. soon.

Saturday, 14 July 2007

These are the days of miracle and wonder

So. I'm back in Norway. At the moment actually at my parents place in Våler, a small, small place outside a small, small city called Moss, not so far from the relatively small city of Oslo. It's raining. It's 15 degrees outside. Tonight I'm going out with a bunch of old non-artworld friends. Hey, this blog suddenly got real blogg-y, huh?

It's weird to be here, we've been discussing it on e-mail, that we all feel like it's just a little break and that we will all soon be back at the gallery at Jeeonheedong, surfing the web, going to the bathroom on the roof, talking to the security camera guy, ordering food, smiling at locals walking by, eating Pringles, drinking, skyping each other and others, talking about art, talking about comfort, talking about each other. Bjørn will be thinking up t-shirt slogans, Jan will be answering e-mails about future exhibitions, Power will be writing texts and letting us in on all the juicy gossip she is somehow privy to, Jooyoung will be talking on the phone saying "neeee" a lot.

I'm listening to Paul Simon's "Graceland", this weird and wonderful album where the ex-Garfunkel compadre teamed with a bunch of "world musicians" (i.e. Africans) and I'm sure he had an idea that the recording process would be some kind of flat structure, I'm sure the Africans were confused, I'm sure Paul Simon was too. How the hell did anyone come up with the idea of putting those 80s sounding trumpet sounds on the same track as that African-inspired rhythm-section? It's a thing of beauty, maybe it's the best album of the 80s, even more, I'd say one of the finest documents of late 20th Century Western culture I know. It sounds super-dated and totally timeless at the same time. That's such a piece of art criticism hyperbole bullshit. Yet it's completely true. It's impossible not to fall in love to it, with it, from it. With everyone involved, everyone who is sucked into your world while you're in its world. In every paradox there is a grain of selv-evidence. Chevy Chase (my favourite actor, he's soooo due for some kind of Bill Murray-style cred-comeback, yet it would be completely right if this never happens) in the video for "You Can Call Me Al" is like an American Jon Skolmen, the great Norwegian actor whose face graces one of Bjørn's Håkki-shirts.

Various elements of the concept, problems and ideals:
- The art product as excuse for setting up social relationships.
- Intensified discrepancies between the curatorial concept and the artist’s feeling of what it is they actually do.
- Vagueness as a way to remove the potential for antagonism.
- Uncertainty as to the general level of consensus within the group.
- Uncertainty as giving the appearance of consensus.
- Decision-making as creative boost.
- Decisions made by authorities or when reporting to authorities.
- Lack of authorities leading to lack of decisions.
- Lack of decisions to be made resulting in lack of creativity.
- Lack of research as a way of achieving flat structure.
- Flat structure as attempt at breaking down the centre – periphery dichotomy that everyone used to be so interested in, but which is now (apparently) unhip again.
- Idea: Make a barometer that measures the distance of the “centre – periphery question” from any given centre or periphery.

Favourite old school attempts at dealing with centre- periphery:

1) Rosenkrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. What was Guildenstern doing when Polonius was giving his monologue on Hamlet's aflictions? He was annoying Rosencrantz with a collection of impressive animal sounds. A man talking sense to himself is no madder than a man talking nonsense not to himself.

2) “The Zeppo”, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, season 3 episode 13. Xander starts off the episode by almost getting killed by some kind of demon. He is told to stay out of the way of battle and while the other Scoobies spend the rest of the episode fighting off one of the (apparently) most serious threats to Sunnydale ever, Xander tries to find his “thing”, gets into lots of trouble with a penis-metaphor driving zombie, and most importantly, gets laid for the first time. While Buffy is fighting back a huge demon in the library Xander is facing one of his own. “You up for it?” Faith asks seductively. Then comes a top-shelf highlight from the genius book of Xander one-liners: “Oh, I’m up….I'm suddenly very up....It’s just I’ve never been up with people before.” In all, though, the message is simple: the centre is wherever you decide to put your focus, and everyone has their own focus, so there is no centre. There is no need for one, and we don't need consensus. Consensus isn’t necessarily bad or to be avoided. We just need to agree on when we need it and when we can do without it. With art, we can do without it most of the time.

3) The Ballad of Nikki and Paolo. The long-awaited episode on Nikki and Paolo. In the middle of a slow beginning to season three, Lost fans everywhere were mostly interested in one aspect of the show: why the hell had the writers introduced these two useless characters? Everyone knew. They were set up to be horribly killed so as to satisfy the bloodthirst of an audience who couldn’t tolerate the shift of focus onto someone with whom we had not yet emotionally invested in on a sufficient level. But it’s really a joke on the audience by the producers. Because even though we all hate Nikki and Paolo and want their horrible death scene (and we get it, albeit in a suspended way, which makes it even better/ worse), what really happens is something else. By the end of the episode their deaths are loaded with more meaning, more pathos and more downright sadness than most any other death on the show. (Remember Shannon, okay wasn’t so bad, but Boon or that Latin girl? Who really cared? Also, the emotional weight of Nikki and Paolo’s deaths may well be seen as previewing the one truly heartbreaking death so far on the show, namely that of the hobbit. (Who it must be said, has usually been far more annoying than N & P ever were.) So what have we learned from this; that no matter how we perceive the centre-periphery to begin with, shifting the focus can also give us the chance to experience something which is a lot more interesting than is to be expected.

The Yeeonhee-Dong 195 Residency Project was about temporarily shifting the focus. Nobody believes that what we did there will gain any significant amount of attention, nor should we want it to or feel that this would be necessary to somehow make the project valid. Attention does not equal worth. Worth does not automatically merit attention. Attention can detract from worth. This is the story of how we begin to remember.