Kwon Hyewon

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Works at: Seoul Art Space_GeumCheon
Stays in: 2014
Genre : Video, Installation

 Education
2014  PhD (candidate) in Fine Art, University of Reading, Reading, UK
2006   MFA in Fine Art Media, Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, London, UK                
1999   BA in Film, Korean National University of Arts, Seoul, South Korea

  Exhibition Records

(Selected Solo Exhibitions)
2013        Chosen Tour Project : Keijo, Gallery Bonun, Seoul, South Korea
2012        Vietnam Memoir, Cyart Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
2012        Eight Men Lived in the Room II, Gallery K, Seoul, South Korea
2010        Eight Men Lived in the Room I, Central Gallery, Reading, UK


(Selected Group Exhibitions)
2014        3D Printing & Art : Creative Tool for Artists, Savina Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul
2013        The Modernity’s Extended, Culture Station Seoul 284, Seoul, South Korea
                The Hidden Cost of Prosperity, Korean Cultural Centre, London, UK
                Public Art New Hero 2013 in the Cube, Blue Square Nemo, Seoul, South Korea
2012        34th Joongang Fine Art Prize, Hangaram Art Museum, Seoul, South Korea
                Eva International 2012– After the Future, Limerick City, Ireland
                Action and Reaction, Kimi Art Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
History Behind History, Trunk Gallery 81, Seoul, South Korea
2011        Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2011, Site Gallery, Sheffield ; ICA Gallery, London ; UK
                Screening 2011, The Public, The West Bromwich Arts Centre, West Midlands, UK
2009        Mullae Faction Project, Future Text, Seoul, South Korea
2008        Drama Station, Galley Loop, Seoul, South Korea
2007        Bittersweet, Tate Britain, London,
-“Single Shot” commissioned by Film & Video Umbrella and the Film Council, UK
                Three Perspectives Through Body, Andante Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
               The Bigger Picture, Big Screen Manchester, Manchester, UK


  Residencies, Workshops

2014        Geumcheon Art Space, Seoul, South Korea

  Prizes and Grants

2013       Art Support Program, Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture, South Korea
2012       Joongang Fine Arts Prize (2nd Prize), South Korea
Selected Artist, New Discourse (Best Artist Prize), South Korea
               Selected Artist, Public Art Magazine Artist, South Korea
2011       Selected Artist, Bloomberg New Contemporaries, UK
2009       Art Support Program, Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture, South Korea
2007       Bittersweet, a short film commissioned by Film & Video Umbrella and the Film Council UK as part of the Single Shot project, UK 
  
 Tour Machine_single channel HD video_video projection_11m 6s_2013_video still
 A Life of Tourist Postcard_postcard from Ebay, wooden frame, single channel HD video, stereo sound_13m 24s_2013_installation view

 A Life of Tourist Postcard_postcard from Ebay, wodden frame, single channel HD video, stereo sound_13m 24s_2013_video stills
 Souvenir City_29 building miniatures (3D printed using monochrome powder Z150)_size variable_2013_installation view(detail)
 Chosen Tour Project (Guide)_single channel HD video, stereo sound_14m 22s_2012_video still
 Chosen Tour Project (Tour Map and Handflag)_digital print, wood, polyester_size variable_2012_installation view
 The Life of a Comedian_video installation, stereo sound_15m 11s_2012_installation view

 Vietnam Memoir 1_2ch HD video, stereo sound_2m 39s_2012_video still

 Eight Men Lived in the Room: News_video projection, stereo sound_5m 57s_2010_video stills
Eight Men Lived in the Room: Filmset_2ch HD video, stereo sound_2m 51s_2011_video still 


Documents which have never been read before
Lee Bit Na
(guest reporter in Contemporary Art Journal)

The artist, Hyewon Kwon's video is a series of the history and event. The characters in her works are a clear 'fact' which collected in the newspapers, text books and clips from TV, but as the forgotten narrative and affectivity around them infiltrate, the unexpected narrative newly begins. Namely, the characters appearing in the work encounter with now-here, following one event and the thoughts deriving from the event, and are weaving the unfamiliar time-space. The time-space crosses the linear time flow, and rather accumulates the surface of uncertain memory, anonymous quivering voice through the overlapped times, than reveals the details of the factual reality.
For example, in the work, <Eight Men Lived in the Room-Film Set>(2011), the artist represents the workers' hard lives only with their singing voice. What we can see in the video is only the fragmented images of their room, and the 8 men don't appear until the end. The audience stare at the deep, dark space, and bury themselves in the unfamiliar sense perceived among their voices. Ironically, the landscape featuring the invisible voice makes the audience contact with the pain and emotion of the workers. The audience('s eyes) looking(imagining) for the 8 invisible men, following the singing voices coming from somewhere, embrace their time(joys and sorrows) and then, at some points, begin to sing along the 'popular song' sung by the 8 men who live away from home and struggle for a living. They express their own existence(feeling) not through a refined individual language but through a shabby popular song, and they(their uniqueness) are always excluded from the layer of the integrated information and singular history. The existences which are not easily subjected to a systematic language float the sorrows and longings into a song, and tear down easily the boundary with others.
This trait of the existence which suddenly appears is embossed more clearly in the <The Life of a Comedian>(2012). In the video, a comedian, Nam Bo Won who was the last generation among the standing comedy world and superstar in the 60-70s looks back on his life through his one-man show. He recalls the scenes which would never meet again, following his past traits and builds the narrative flow, skipping the time. Although the narrative is developed around Nam Bo Won's personal history, actually the numerous, anonymous entities(through his voice) appear there, and the dim existences attempt to talk to us off the screen. In other words, that is not a
monologue, but the stories about the numerous others who are congealed to a person's life. Such a 'realistic hallucination' taking place in the real world is the only way which the shapeless memories show their bodies, and in this regard, we can say that the comedian's one man show in the work extends to the stage where the different entities perform 'together'.
In this way, the artist treats past as planning the transformation of the static reality/ representation/ idea and as revealing the process. But, in fact, the world beyond the registered(inherent) information(perception) is similar to the unrealizable utopia. Nevertheless, in the work, the artist realizes(materialize) the utopia, mediating the meeting between the present and past which can't be encountered in the reality, rejecting the fragmentary interpretation about the existence through the verbal texture, testifying the people(existence) of not being recorded through rediscovering others in the individual's gesture. That is not the artist's sympathy or compassion for the forgotten existence, but the exploration of the existence which is just volatilized without even realizing it and will to recover it. Therefore, it is not wrong to say that the artist prepares ‘another present’ to rewrite again and again, through the documents which have not been read before by anyone.