<K-Artists> featuring English interviews with 47 Korean artists, has been published.
< K-Artists >, the first-ever English-language interview compilation featuring Korean artists, has been published by three active curators in Korea: Kwon Hyuk-kyu, Kim Eun-ji, and Byun Hyun-joo. This book compiles interviews with 47 artists who are actively recognized for their work in Korea, presented in English.
While introducing artists with a Korean identity, the book paradoxically questions the ‘K’ syndrome, reflecting international interest in Korean culture and arts. Does the ‘K’ syndrome, which reflects nationalism and ethnocentrism, have an anachronistic and capitalist strategic nature? If so, how can we introduce the contemporary Korean art scene without the ‘K’? Or, if collective classification or generalization based on nationality is deemed valuable, how can individual artists’ personalities and characteristics be preserved and presented?
To express these characteristics, a strikethrough line is drawn over the ‘K’ in < K-Artists >. This is an attempt to highlight the ambivalence of ‘K,’ simultaneously illuminating and negating it while expanding the use of the term.
< K-Artists > adopts an interview format that allows the artists to speak in their own voices. In contemporary art, where there is a reevaluation of the value of discourse and interviews are considered a significant form to introduce an artist’s artistic practices, this approach aligns interviews with the act of doing in the discourse.
Published jointly by Archive Books in Berlin and the independent Korean publisher The Floor Plan in June 2023, < K-Artists > is currently available for sale in several bookstores in Korea, priced at KRW 45,000. (Approx. 30 USD)
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