Prayer / Im Heung-Soon

Im Heung-soon has constantly worked on the theme of enhancing the relation among an individual's social experience, symbol and memory. He has also worked in the 'Public Itda' actions based on participation and communication. Currently, his 7th solo exhibition <Prayer> has open. The Jeju April 3 Incident that broke out after the Japanese occupation, the establishment of U.S. Military government and South Korean government, in the tumultuous period of ideology called the Korean War. The 4·3 Incident is the numerous sacrifice of Jeju Island residents during the armed conflict and suppression of demonstration. This tragedy is still left behind as a forgotten piece of the past, not even lamented, despite existing as the starting point of animosity and conflicts between ideologies that followed in Korean modern history. Im Heung-soon brings back the pain and personal stories that were considered as taboo into our time, tracing back on the discarded past and its trails. This exhibition is prepared as the prologue for the Jeju 4·3 Project, which is the itinerary for 2 years that will cover the whole area of Jeju, Osaka(Japan) where survivors have immigrated to and Gang-jung Village in Jeju where there is currently some conflict due to the construction of a Navy base. The artist intersects this current event in Gang-jung Village with the memories of Jeju 4·3 and points out the fact that the unhealed wound of the past that this era had to heal would inevitably repeat itself. The artist excludes the narrative nature of the historical incident and does not exert to use devices that facilitate the justification of the past history. The work with images and the least amount of stories presented, intends to sympathize with the existence of the frail human being facing such a historical tragedy and with their emotions, rather than convey the fact of the Incident. The unpredictable situation at that time where anxiety and fear occupied the place for happiness and stability at an instant and the desperate lives of survivors who could not even mourn over the tragedy and lived on with 'prayers' were realized visually based on the term 'Sung Si(Jeju dialect for bad sign)'. The exhibition composed of video, photographs and installation work has the venue itself made into a composition based on the artist's reflection on historical death and life.

Korean; English