▾ In the Space of Silence

Curatorial Statement for Sil(h)ence, 2021

Kunstverein am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Berlin

In Eastern philosophy, ‘emptiness’ is not simply explained as a state of absence, but also as a state that implies different connotations other than existence and is interpreted as standing in a reciprocal relationship to existence*: because of ‘existence’, ‘emptiness’ can exist in itself and, conversely, ‘emptiness’ is a part of ‘existence’. Hence, ‘emptiness’ does not simply mean ‘non-existence’, but it is intended as a dimension with unlimited openness and endless interaction with ‘being’; ‘emptiness’ is therefore perceived as a space filled with infinite chances and as an ever-available realm to contain opportunities.

In the series The Face with Closed Eyes, Chang-won photographs masks of people with closed eyes. The artist worked together with a sculptor to realise in a clay cast of the faces of friends, colleagues and acquaintances and consequently photographed them. The masks suspended on the grayscale background are captured as if they float, drifting away from the history, the narratives, time and space. Emotions from the faces can not be perceived; represented as silence, with the eyes shut, everything feels like remaining still and motionless. By photographing the masks, the boundaries of time and space that the context would suggest are removed, and the personality, emotions and feelings of the individuals are concealed. Through this series of actions, the space implying the characteristics of the individuals is erased and new possibilities are generated while existence and nothingness interact infinitely in the empty territory. The artist seeks to find the answer to one among the fundamental questions of existence by exploring the relationship between ‘being’ and ‘being empty’. The series of Woo Chang-won itself becomes the question of the artist’s being, ‘emptiness’ and the relationship between those, and his work creates a middle realm where ‘being’ and ‘emptiness’ merge. In the empty space, viewers standing in front of ‘the faces with closed eyes’ encounter the essential question of ‘being’ as being.

In front of the works of the artist, the public stands in a silent space and time that seems to extend into infinity and this is where the artist aims to unravel the essential question of existence; it is an inquiry about the nature of being and nothingness, about ‘being’ and ‘emptiness’. In the infinite empty space, the masks in his works are silent and do not necessarily reveal nor express, they are a vehicle to initiate an inner subjective discourse.

In this series of works, Chang-won proposes an idea of ‘being’ as of a path which from the void and ends in ‘emptiness’. Following his quest for the origin of being, the artist poses the questions about the essence of the existence of life, if life is meant as a consequence of ‘emptiness’.

The artist suggests this question, contemplating the silence as a moment in which the quest to find the answer begins.

His works remain silent.

*NOZA 노자 (老子, Laozi) (1994). Do deok gyeong (도덕경, 道德經 Dao de jing), (trans. and comments Lee Min-su 이민수), Seoul, Hyewon 혜원.

▾ Place, the End of One’s Journey

Exhibition Text for Place, the End of One’s Journey, 2017

GlogauAIR, Berlin

A sense of place traditionally has been interpreted as existing in particular physical places. However, the increasing interconnecting of places and globalization has had a very significant impact on how we think about place and how we feel about a physical place.

The advance of the globalization, of economics and cultural exchange have allowed people to move beyond the idea of a sense of place in a physical sense. Therefore, as a central key to have a sense of place for modern human being, the most, important step can be finding and relating to the parts of feeling and experiences which they can carry around no matter where they are. In other words, internalizing the feelings of place inside themselves can be a primary requirement for people to expand the spectrum of a sense of place.

In this sense, it can be seen that a sense of place for us does not remain as one geographical place, but as stories built up with our experiences in every moment. Everyone has a history and the history can become a place of our root and a sense of place for us. A sense of place is conjured up in our rich memories images and feelings, and remains as a story with us.

The group exhibition in GlogauAIR, “Place, the end of one’s journey”, brings works by the artists Jinran Ha, Hagit Cohavi and Laura Mascarenhas. They share the interest for space and represent a diverse cultural context and their own particular sense of place by exploring the themes through their personal interpretation of the urban environment both public and private. In their works, they are seeking a new way of the finding one’s own place beyond the physical.

In Jinran Ha’s installation work, “Haus der Fremde (2)” (2017), she is creating a minimalistic object of house by transforming everyday things as artistic material and exploring the interpretation of body and space in her own way to imply the context of social and political relations. The wheels attached on her work allow people to move it around in the exhibition space, and the interactive performing  gives the moments of internalizing the feelings of place inside of a participator and expanding the spectrum of a sense of place. 
 
“Trouble” (2016) by Hagit Cohavi is a photograph series. She scrapes outside layer, and expose the earnest elements that construct society and human life like: fear, anxiety, human nature/nature, failure, potential for danger and passing of time. The work is combined by different mediums, photography, red and blue paint layered on the photographic works, with the intent of examining the reciprocal relation between the given image and the space itself.

Through the installation and performance, “Ephemories” (2015), Laura Mascarenhas transforms the memories of a trip which are ephemeral and blurry into physical souvenirs. In her work, she captures not only the individuals’ personal memories, but also proposes a different concept for memory preservation in the future. The works provides an abstract and tangible way to play with the senses and the memories.