Sojung Jun, Despair to be Reborn, 2020 ©MMCA
As part of ‘SONGEUN x STEDELIJK: Video Club’, a collaboration between the SONGEUN Art and Cultural Foundation and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, artworks by Korean artists Jungju An and Sojung Jun have been selected for the Stedelijk Museum’s collection.
In partnership with Saint Laurent Korea, SONGEUN selects two talented media artists from those who have actively participated in the SONGEUN Art and Cultural Foundation’s multifaceted exhibition programs. The program receives support from Saint Laurent Korea as the company has supported encompassing various artists across a spectrum of artistic disciplines, including visual arts, film, and music. Subsequently, one work from each distinguished artists will be acquired and generously donated to Stedelijk’s Time-Based Media Collection. This donation comprises two artworks, valued at KRW 20 million.
The collection, the first by a Korean artist since Nam June Paik, is part of the museum’s commitment to diversity and inclusion since Rein Wolfs took over as director.
Jungju An, Their War 2 – Israel, 2005 ©Doosan Art Center
Jungju An is a recipient of the 17th SONGEUN Art Award, and the work to be donated is Their war 2 – Israel (2005). This is a work in which the sound is separated from the video recorded with the sound, new music is created, and then reassembled with the video, reflecting on the barrier between Israel and Palestine through images and sounds in relation to the political situation in Korea.
Sojung Jun is the grand prize winner of the 14th SONGEUN Art Award, and her work Despair to be Reborn (2020) was inspired by the poetry of Yi Sang, who was a poet and architect. It contains questions and experiments on the attitude of looking at the present anew through the past within the continuity of history.
