Primary Practice presents a solo exhibition “Proxy State” by Heaven BAEK, on view through February 9.

Heaven BAEK (b. 1984) has focused on the (in)tangible spaces and times shaped by individuals’ relationships and networks, as well as the (in)visibility of narratives that emerge from them. Her work often critically examines the ideologies of documentation and representation, engaging with the nature of media. To do so, the artist traverses micro-communities and national frameworks, constructing platforms that embrace individual voices submerged beneath official narratives.

In this exhibition, BAEK investigates a specific audio archive housed in the Berliner Phonogramm-Archiv at the Humboldt Forum in Berlin. The archive contains recordings of Korean migrants in Russia, captured during World War I at German prisoner-of-war camps.

By collecting, extracting, reinterpreting, and editing these sounds, BAEK layers them onto today’s imagery. This process evokes the structures of national ideologies and governance within the intersecting micro- and macro-histories of migration. Ultimately, her work confronts the extended present as a continuation of the past.

“Proxy State”
2024.12.28 - 2025.02.09
Wed-Sun 12:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Primary Practice
7, Changuimun-ro 11-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul, Korea

Ji Yeon Lee has been working as an editor for the media art and culture channel AliceOn since 2021 and worked as an exhibition coordinator at samuso (now Space for Contemporary Art) from 2021 to 2023.