7th Gwangju Biennial [5 Sept. - 11 Nov. 2008], Focus on Gwon Osang & New The Walkmen LP "You & Me" (Gigantic Music)

Gwon, Osang
A statement of meaningless 360 pieces / C-prints mixed media / 120x100x60 cm, 2000



Gwangju Biennale 2008 presentation from Artkrush
(Where u can look at pictures from Biennale's Artists)

"Artistic director Okwui Enwezor dispensed with a thematic framework for the Gwangju Biennale 2008. Instead, Enwezor — past director of the 1997 Johannesburg Biennale and 2002's documenta 11 — chose to showcase a series of selected traveling exhibitions, consisting of 127 artists from 36 countries, under the title Annual Report: A Year in Exhibitions. The show consists of three sections: On the Road gathers and engages 36 exhibitions from the past year; Position Papers allows five emerging curators to realize innovative exhibition proposals and curatorial strategies; and Insertions presents new works created especially for the Biennale.

For On the Road, German artist Hans Haacke's Wide White Flow is transported from New York's Paula Cooper Gallery to the Biennale Hall, its white silk sheet billowing above the currents of four large fans. Another New York transplant, the Whitney Museum's retrospective Gordon Matta-Clark: You Are the Measure contributes Matta-Clark's seminal works of segmented architecture, such as 1974's Splitting. Isaac Julien offers a somber film on illegal immigration off the Sicilian coast, while Bruce Yonemoto photographs Asian-American male models in theatrical Civil War costumes to explore heroism. Other notable contributions to On the Road come from two young Korean artists: Donghee Koo presents the impressive video work Static Electricity of Cat's Cradle, a film within a film based on a couple's shared memories of bygone heroes and ancestors, and Jina Park's new series of Moontan paintings draws inspiration from LOMO toy cameras, depicting banal, unremarkable moments of everyday existence.

In the Insertions portion of the Biennale, a collaborative work between Donghwan Jo and his son Haejun Jo contains more than 500 documentary drawings based on their family history vis-à-vis Korean social history. A special archival cabinet has been constructed for the work, with viewers invited to examine each drawing closely. Meanwhile, American photographer Daniel Faust channels Stephen Shore's drive-by aesthetic for a tourist-cum-ethnographer's take on Alaska, and Indian artist Praneet Soi shows deftly rendered miniatures of Abu Ghraib tortures. Claire Tancons' opening-day procession at Position Papers meanwhile, paid tribute to Gwangju's democratic uprising in May of 1980, while Sung-Hyen Park's Bokdukbang Project placed experimental installations by Korean artists Munho Ma, Munjong Park, Kiyoung Peik, and others in Daein Traditional Market — set up in stalls alongside fish, fruit, and vegetable vendors.

Founded in the fall of 1995, the Gwangju Biennale was intended to be the foremost contemporary art event in Asia, but it faces increasing competition from other festivals in Korea and those in nearby countries. However, Enwezor has praised such proliferation, saying: "It is not a competition among biennales... This is an immense privilege for this region to have so many exhibits open." Enwezor believes it is only proof that "the 21st century will be the Asian century."

- Josephina E. Lee The Gwangju Biennale continues through November 9 at the Biennale Hall, the Gwangju Museum of Art, the Uijae Museum of Korean Art, the Daein Traditional Market, and the Cinema Gwangju.

Also, one of the best artist at this Biennale is certainly the korean Osang Gwon

Born in 1974 in Seoul, where he lives and works today, Gwon received his undergraduate and graduate degrees in sculpture from the prestigious Hong-Ik University. Gwon's attempts to break away from traditional sculpture led him to abandon conventional materials, such as bronze and stone, and begin working photography into his work. In doing so, Gwon secured his first solo exhibition in 2001 at Insa Art Space in Seoul; he has since shown internationally in Beijing, London, and Zurich.



A statement of 280 pieces on the absolute authority and worship in art / C-prints, mixed media / 240x50x140 cm /1999

Osang Gwon may be best known for his photographic modes, but don't call him a photographer. In 1998, he began his Deodorant Type series of life-size figures created from hundreds of cut-and-pasted photographic fragments, including inanimate objects, such as Unbearable heaviness, that mapped the texture of stone over rounded forms. But his human figures — eerie, three-dimensional paper dolls — eventually became Gwon's trademark entrance into the art world, and continue to hold sway on the contemporary market. Several works from the series, along with new commissions, were recently on view in a solo show at the Manchester Art Gallery in the UK.


THE FLAT 11 / Lamda Print, Diasec / 180x225 cm / 2004

For his next project, appropriately titled The Flat, Gwon assembled magazine cutouts of luxury goods, propping them up in a tight swarm across desks and floors to create the illusion of depth; he then photographed the glossy, yet empty cascades, collapsing them back into two dimensions. Again toying with the demands of three-dimensional representation, Gwon re-examines sculptural conventions with full-scale, painted bronze models of sports cars and motorbikes in The Sculpture. Here, the sculptor's quest for anomalous artistic forms leads him back to an old-fashioned material in an act of ironic homecoming. Gwon's name continues to circulate — he recently photographed British megarockers Keane for the cover of their upcoming album — as his continuing ability to subvert his media challenges audiences to look beyond preconceived notions.

To be honest i'm fucking in love for that guy...Impressive Works



Today, i was listenning to The Walkmen's last LP called You & Me.
As i bought it for the library, i wanted to verify if my friends speechs about it were correct or just (again) bullshits

For one time, she was right. This new one is a great as well.

Beautifull songs all along if u were waiting for something different, don't be disapointed
It's still The Walkmen
It's different
And its Fuckin good

4th in a series (we hope so !!), this one was written since 2 years between an old night club in Chelsea/New-York & one old house inside Fish Town's neighboor in Philly.
Recorded first in the Mississippi by John Agnello (Dinosaur Jr, Sonic Youth) then in New York by Chris Zane (Calla, White Rabbits, Asobi Seksu)...Yummy !

This track called On The Water, is clearly perfect to watch some pictures from the Biennale
Or smoke a lil one...

Get the album on Gigantic Music
And check their Myspace

Peace & Good Week end everyone