Photo Archives as Historic Records
Kyungmin Lee(The Study Photographic Archives)
2006.6.30 fri 5pm-7pm

Photographs collected here are focused on the history and language of a nation, an archive of visual historic records to be interpreted via eyes. These photos, all taken between the late 19th and early 20th century, are valuable historic records that show us various scenes of Korea in the period in a vivid way, offering detailed visual information of the country in a manner that no written materials can. That is why these photos are regarded as important visual resources for the study of the modern Korean history and other Korean studies, and indispensable materials for those who are interested in the life and culture of Korean people in the early modern period. In addition, they can become a mechanism that brings us a new insight into the origin and nature of new learning introduced to modern Korea, particularly because photography played an important role in the process during which the modern learning was adopted and established between Korean people.

Unfortunately, however, these photos, earliest of which date back to the 1880s when Korea was first brought to the new art, have neither been sorted out in order nor systematically researched even after 60 years from 1945 when Korea restored independence. Accordingly, we have often suffered frustration in using them for various academic and educational purposes and visually rediscovering the life of Korean people in the modern times. The situation calls for a system urgently built for the efficient management of these valuable visual records. It is with this awareness of the situation that The Study Photographic Archives introduces in this lecture their effort to construct a database of these early photos, holding discussion about productive use of the database through a case in which exhibition and publication contents were developed.


Joint, Extend, and Transform, No Matter Loss and Lack
Report (Not Announcement) Publication event
Binna Choi(Curator, BAK The Netheland) Hyegue Yang(Artist)
2006.7.14 Fri from 5pm to the sun set or to see the moon

The book, A Report (also subtitled as “Transitionary report on the state of mobility at the beginning of the 21st century”), deals with artists, both Korean and overseas, who need to continue to move around according to the nature of their vocation, conveying in a report form various meanings and events emerged from the space between their arrival and departure. Unlike an ordinary travelogue that deals with a specific place which they depart from or arrive at, this book describes an unspecified space of passage linking one place with another and the meaning contained in the space. The specific space that attracts the authors’ eyes, for instance, includes an airport, airplane, train, station, or subway platform. The authors then ask: “If this ‘non-place’ or ‘space of passage’ characterizes the spatial experience of modern people along with the expansion of mobility, what kind of possibility can they have?” The book, published in a pocketbook form following the online publication, contains an answer for the question, and gives it in a secretive manner mixed with recollective tone: “Joint, Extend, and Transform, No Matter Loss and Lack.” The program is organized to mark the publication of the book and to visit, revise and overpass the answers given in the book.

The program consists of conversations and video screening dealing with the meaning of “home town” which is the unavoidable destination of our frequent departures and arrivals, and the compositional possibility of other subjects such as denial and absence. Other programs include Metro Poem, which is introduced in the book, and poetry writing and recitation participated by many amateur artists.


The Logbook of a Critic
Yungjoon Lee(Critic of machinary)
2006.7.28 Fri 5pm-7pm

A critic of machinery go around to visit where a machine is operated just like an art critic makes visits to art galleries and studios where artistic activities take place. Machines have a history which is as long, beautiful and as sorrowful as that of art, containing stories of many human kinds. One of the largest machines so far, and operated over a larger area than others, is a ship that makes a crossing over the ocean. A machinery critic enters into the very heart of a ship to find out how it works to make its way through the harsh natural force, and delves into the adventure of mankind in it. Life of mankind on sea is as hard as that of the huge body of a vessel that always has to suffer wild waves. The sea and a ship floating on it presents us a scene in which a man-made machine overwhelms and even transcends its creator. To interpret a machine, one needs to perform the work of a miner drilling into multiple layers of the earth, questing from its physical mechanism to the meaning and the senses granted to it by man and to the historical context that has made it exist here today. In a sense, it is a very physical activity in which the critic throws his body into the very center of a machine and listens to the heartbeats of the machine. The activities he perform, taking pictures, writing a report, interviewing seamen and eating and drinking with them in a ship rocking wildly over violent waves, are more like an adventure into the den of a beastly monster rather than an artistic act of criticism. Grand Mercury, a freighter with a displacement of 50,000 tons, has finally revealed her secrets to the critic.


See into Your Village before the Universe- A Story of Fifteen Villages
Sung-bo Chon(Independent curator)
2006.08.18 Fri 5pm-7pm

The exhibition, A Story of Fifteen Villages, deals with the life of Gwangju people who survived in the turbulent 20th century via 15 villages vanishing away amid the city’s lively move towards the Asia’s cultural hub. The exhibition is focused on the preservation of records and artistic communication for ordinary art lovers via dealing with the reality of the city in which everything old is fast replaced by new even without asking why and things that have been our neighbors since long suddenly disappear. Held at the old Provincial Administration Office of Jeonnam, the exhibition guides visitors to the historic sites and stories of Gwangju and the villages whose stories are fast leaving our memories. The stories about the open, sincere aspects of life in Gwangju are captured by elaborate artistic visual materials. Participated by a group of young emerging artists in and around the city under the motto, “See into your village before the Universe,” the event is faithful to the theme of the Archive Exhibition, “Communication for Future”.