Transfer Korea – NRW
19.10.2013 – 5.1.2014

The ninth edition of the NRW KULTURsekretariat’s international art and artist exchange programme Transfer has been devoted to its partner country, the Republic of Korea, since 2011. The Kunsthalle Düsseldorf is taking part in this project together with the Kunstmuseum Bonn, the Osthaus Museum Hagen and three museums in Seoul. Transfer Korea-NRW represents its first exchange with a non-European country and it provides thrilling insights into South Korea’s dynamic art scene. After an intense dialogue that went on for several years between numerous protagonists, institutions and the 14 jury-selected artists, each participating house conceived its own exhibition that would all be shown parallel to each other.

The Kunsthalle is presenting works by six artists. One aspect they have in common is the examination of spaces marked by different cultural connotations. Luka FINEISEN and Yeondoo JUNG present in their video a staged pictorial world of the megapolis of Seoul. At the end, the morning song of the German blackbird can be heard in the background. To the extent that Kyungah HAM has her embroideries manufactured in North Korea and then smuggles them back to Seoul, the borderline experience extends here over and above the transfer of Western and Asian art production. Manuel GRAF’s installation inquires in a referential game about the cultural conditionality of space. By linking cultural-specific articles of everyday use, Erika HOCK unfolds webs of relationships between cultural ideas and individual dealings. Kira KIM has assembled a mosaic of film images that demonstrate the dependency between the environment and everyday life.

This exhibition was made possible thanks to the support of the Embassy Branch Office of the Republic of Korea in Bonn and Samsung Electronics GmbH. The Transfer project is supported in particular by the NRW KULTURsekretariat and the North Rhine Westphalian Ministry for Family, Children, Youth, Culture and Sport.

Please find here the catalogue of the exhibition.