After the great success of the first part of the exhibition New Photography in Korea II held in Paris in 2010, the Galerie Paris-Beijing is pleased to present the second part of this exhibition.
This ambitious title does not conceal an intention of exhaustiveness, but rather a desire to expose to the public a subjective but – we hope – coherent sample of the new photographic creation in Korea over recent years. We talk of Korea, but we should say South Korea, this small country which is so discreet, wedged between the two Asian giants of China and Japan, and which is generally only mentioned in the media to better locate the conflict opposing it against its so troublesome brother enemy, that of the north.
Yet despite this, since the 1980s, we have seen the burgeoning development of the “Land of the Morning Calm”. What a long way we have come since the Korean War (1950-53) devastated the republic: in a few decades, South Korea has gone from a third world country to be included among the heavily industrialised countries. One only has to have the fortune to visit the country to remark upon its dynamism, both economic and cultural; its urban landscapes in perpetual development; its exceptionally vigorous artistic scene, based
in particular upon its cinema and upon museums, festivals, contemporary art fairs and other biennials of international scope; not a single day passes without the opening of a new art gallery in Seoul… Photography? It is booming… both rich and vibrant. What better medium could one choose to highlight all of these upheavals and to express the resulting uncertainties such as sociological changes?
It is therefore entirely natural that the artistic young Turks, a generation born at the end of the 1970s, have enthusiastically taken possession of the photographic medium in order to demonstrate the wealth, identity and complexity of their little understood country.
For New Photography in Korea II, we have selected nine young photographers living in Korea and who we feel are representative of today’s main photographic currents. Introspective or sociological photography, fashion photography, architectural photography, conceptual photography or mise en scène… Urbanisation, globalisation, consumption, identity, culture, memory, family, sexuality, social fabrics… all are themes approached by this generation of artists born from the Korean miracle and who are already all at the dawn of international recognition.
