The Korean Cultural Center in Vietnam (Director Lee Dae Joong) and Heritage Space is honored to organize the exhibition ‘Ranh gioi vo dinh | Undefined boundaries’ to introduce the Vietnamese and Korean contemporary art to celebrate 25 years of foreign relation between two countries. The exhibition will take place from 3 to 31 March, 2017 at the Korean Cultural Center in Vietnam and Heritage Space. This project is part of the NEXT Expert Training series by Korea Arts Management Service (KAMS), co-organized by the Korean Cultural Center in Vietnam and the Korea Arts Management Service. The project will bring to the audience a diverse body of artworks by 8 artists, from 30-40 years old, who are currently very active in the domestic and international art scenes – Ki Seulki, Heaven Beak, Lee Woosung, Jo Hyejin, UuDam Tran Nguyen, Phi Phi Oanh, Bui Cong Khanh, Lai Dieu Ha. This exhibition, organized by Korea Arts Management Service, in partnering with Heritage Space, a Hanoi-based art space focusing on contemporary arts, will be showcasing artwork from various practices, such as painting, photography, installation, images with a ‘Boundary’ theme, which represent diverse perspectives of artists from both countries. Each piece contains thoughts of artists coming from the same era about boundaries between traditional and modern, ideal and reality, individual and society, and at the same time conveys stories about changes and phenomena happening in Vietnam and South Korea. This exhibition is an opportunity for exploring and expressing the opinions from different perspectives of Vietnamese and South Korean artists.
Apart from displaying the artwork, the Korean Cultural Center in Vietnam will also organize a seminar program with the participation of 8 visual art experts from Vietnam and South Korea during 2 days, March 16-17, 2017 in order to determine the direction for future fine art exchange between two countries. The round-table discussions will cover the topics of art museums and galleries, independent art spaces, art collection, criticism and press to share and exchange about the fine art environment in each country. The first seminar will take place at the Korean Cultural Center in Vietnam with 8 participants who are art experts from two countries. The experts will talk about the current situation of visual art in their countries to look for intersections so that Vietnam and Korea can exchange more in the future. The second one, held on March 17th, will be at Heritage Space with the participation of art experts in Vietnam and art fans. 4 Korean and Vietnamese experts will speak and discuss by topics. This seminar is an open discussion aiming at identifying possibilities for exchange between Vietnamese and Korean contemporary art.
The Korean experts participating in these discussions include Ms. Park Gahee, Curator of the Seoul Museum of Art, who has large experience in organizing exchange exhibitions between leading local and international institutions, Mr. Lee Kwan-hoon, Director of the Project Space Sarubia, a pioneer unconventional space in Korea, Ms. Lee Kyungmin, Director of Meetingroom, a platform specialized in research of contemporary art, and Ms. Chae Yeon, editor of the monthly art magazine Art in Culture. Experts in the area from Vietnam include Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan, Art director of Heritage Space, an independent art space focusing on developing domestic contemporary arts and promoting international exchange in Vietnam, Ms. Nguyen Phuong Linh, Director of Nha San Collective, which could be considered a core unconventional space in Hanoi, Ms. Arlete Quynh-Anh Tran, a member of art collective Art Labor who mainly works in Ho Chi Minh city, and Mr. Nguyen Nhu Huy, Art director of Zero Station, which has organized many exchange projects with international organizations.
For the last 25 years, Vietnam and Korea has obtained great achievements in human and capital resources across many exchange areas, though exchange in visual art has been rather limited. “Undefined boundaries” could be a metaphor for the relationship between two countries at present, close but far, is a project established with an objective of creating more fluid exchange flows in visual art. The organizers hope that this project will establish a platform where experts in contemporary art and artists from both countries can create and discuss, and from that, will open up a whole new period in the foreign relation between two countries.
The exhibition will open on 03 Mar and be on display until 30 Mar 2017 at Korean Cultural Center and Heritage Space.