Yeondoo Jung

Yeondoo Jung, b. 1969, Jinju, Korea. Lives and works in Seoul, Korea.

One of the most prominent artists working in Korea today, Yeondoo Jung was born in 1969 in Jinju, South Korea and received his MFA from Goldsmiths College in 1997. He is the recipient of the 2007 Artist of the Year Award, given annually by the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul. He has had solo exhibitions in Asia, Europe as well as the United States and his works have also been shown in numerous museums and biennales worldwide, including the 51st Venice Biennale and the Liverpool Biennale in 2008. His photographs and videos can be found in important collections worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the National Museum of Contemporary Art (Seoul), The Essl Museum of Contemporary Art (Vienna), and the RISD Museum (Providence, RI).

Jung’s work has been consistently honored in biennials throughout the world since the late 90s. The following is a short-list of biennials that have included Jung’s work and a brief snap shot of his projects during PERFORMA 09 (2009), Liverpool Biennial (2004), and the 4th Gwangju Biennale (2002).

The 7th Seoul International Media Art Biennale, 2012

8th Shanghai Biennale, 2010

PERFORMA 09

Cinemagician

Cinemagician was presented at the Asia Society, New York City, November 2009, and commissioned by PERFORMA with the Yokohama Festival for Video and Social Technology. It was supported by The Korea Foundation and the TOBY Fund, co-produced by Tina Kim Gallery, New York and Kukje Gallery, Seoul, Korea, and presented at the Asia Society, New York.

Jung’s playful theater performance reveals the tensions between the magician and audience, as an unknown event or trick unfolds. Inspired by the nineteenth-century French filmmaker George Melies, whose experiments as a magician and cabaret illusionist led him to play with special film effects such as the “stop trick” (stopping filming, substituting something in front of the camera for something else, and then resuming filming), multiple exposures, dissolves, and hand-painting colors on film, Cinemagician will present a live “happening” juxtaposed with a projected one. As a live magician (South Korean celebrity Eungyeol Lee) manually constructs the setting of the stage that he is standing on, a camera will simultaneously shoot the stage, and project its feed on a screen hanging above. As the performance progresses, the version shown on the screen will drift from a strict live feed to one transformed by illusions only possible in cinema, leaving the audience to oscillate between the “suspension of disbelief” and a paradoxically ravishing spectacle. – PERFORMA 09 Press Release

Yeondoo Jung, Perfoma09, Cinemagician, Projection Size Varies, Projection and Performance, Duration 51 minutes. Courtesy of the artist.

Yeondoo Jung, Perfoma09, Cinemagician, Projection Size Varies, Projection and Performance, Duration 51 minutes. Courtesy of the artist.

Yeondoo Jung, Perfoma09, Cinemagician, Projection Size Varies, Projection and Performance, Duration 51 minutes. Courtesy of the artist.

Yeondoo Jung, Perfoma09, Cinemagician, Projection Size Varies, Projection and Performance, Duration 51 minutes. Courtesy of the artist.

Prague Biennale 4, 2009

Daegu Photo Biennale, 2008

Taipei Biennial, 2006

Liverpool Biennial, 2004

Wonderland

Over a four-month period Jung collected 1, 200 drawings from children ranging in age between 5 and 7. From this collection of children’s drawing he selected seventeen to be made into photographic replicas of each child’s drawing.

Wonderland is a photographic series that simultaneously shares the child’s fantasy and Jung’s photographic reality. By using adults as the “characters” of his photographic tableaux, Jung hopes that these images will simultaneously express a child’s view of an adult world, and visa versa. – Statement by the artist.

Wonderland, drawing, 2004. Courtesy of the artist.

Yeondoo Jung, 2004, Liverpool Biennale, Wonderland, c-print, print size variable. Courtesy of the artist.

8th International İstanbul Biennial, 2003

4th Shanghai Biennale, 2002

Busan Biennale, 2002

4th Gwangju Biennale, 2002

Borame Dance Hall 

Borame Park was formerly an air force base that was used during the 70s in Seoul, Korea.

At this time, military government in Korea prohibited social dancing as they considered it adulteress.

To create a romantic atmosphere, Yeondoo Jung made wallpaper patterned with images of couples engaged in dance and lit the dance floor with warm tones that were energized by a small spinning disco ball. Now, people dance their hearts out in the evening and are inspired by the images of others that surround them. – Statement by the artist.

Yeondoo Jung, Gwangju Biennale, Borame Dance Hall, 2002, Installation, Photo images heat transferred on wall papers, 56 images patterned, size varies to the space. Courtesy of the artist.

Yeondoo Jung, Gwangju Biennale, Borame Dance Hall, 2002, Installation, Photo images heat transferred on wall papers, 56 images patterned, size varies to the space. Courtesy of the artist.

1st Tirana Biennale, 2001