WE Exhibition on View till 10th September 2016

Korean Cultural Centre opened Exhibition ‘WE’ at its center, Lajat Nagar. Curated by academic researchers Baishali Ghosh and Rajarshi Sengupta, the exhibition explores meaning of identities in today’s world. The ‘WE’ not only refers to communities, but also draws attention to words like independence, in-betweenness, interaction, intention, and invention. The Exhibition will be on view till 10th September 2016 09:00 A.m. to 6:00 P.M. It is open for all.

Kim Kum Pyoung, - Director of Korean Cultural Centre said that this exhibition is unique because each art work shows collective efforts of Artists. Each installation / art work is prepared by the collaborative effort of artists. It showcases the true sense of the Word ‘WE’.

Both the countries, India and Korea share the same date of Independence Day. The idea of showcasing this exhibition emerged from here. Artists from Both the countries wanted to showcase their work during this time. The artists conceptualized the theme together and worked virtually. It took 9 months to bring the end result.

Korean Artist Hwang –Soonwans’ Installation ‘Wee-ARC’ grabbed the attention in which radium lights and sound have been used.

In simpler terms, it refers to the different meanings that can be drawn from the word ‘We’. “The word as a social identity is much debated and discussed in the scholarly practices. There have been contestation over the legitimacy of communities. This exhibition is an attempt to explore the shifting ideas and identities of an individual and the collective,” says curator Baishali Ghosh. According to Ghosh, the artists including Bijay Nath, Jagadeesh Reddy, Hwang Soonwon and Cynthia Bodenhorst have tried to use the medium of art to give shape to their idea of ‘we.

Artist Kunal Kalra has created two installations. First one titled ‘Hyderabad Diaries’ has been made by integrating lights, microcontrollers. This artwork depicts the artist’s travel memoirs from Hyderabad. The second installation, titled ‘Choose Your Own Door’, is based on spirituality. Kalra visited a temple, church and gurudwara to record the sound of the prayers. Later, he visited a local market to record sounds of footsteps. He says “It took me seven months to create both the installations. The second installation is closer to my heart. I travelled to many spiritual places and tried to capture the faith of devotees. The sound of their prayers has been integrated in the artwork.

In the past nine months, participants from 7 countries - South Korea, Iran, Mauritius, United States of America, Canada, Ecuador, and India shared views on liminality and shifting sense of “WE” and its relationship with vernacular and global languages. The journey of confrontation, contestations, compromises, and integration, that erupted from the discussions of the participants have morphed into the six installations.

You can see the Art Work of 33 Artists participating in this exhibition from across the globe.

Artwork will be on: Integrating sound, poems, video, sculpture, paintings, crafts, photographs, embroidery and drawing. ‘WE’ a शब्द/ شبد exhibits the six installations in the Korean Cultural Centre -‘Naqsh’, ‘Excerpts from Our All Wet Talk’, ‘Wee-Arc’, ‘Dining Together’, ‘Twin Paradox’ and ‘Anthology of Unknowingly Yours’.

These six installations in the Korean Cultual Centre are ‘Naqsh’, ‘Excerpts from Our All Wet Talk’, ‘Wee-Arc’, ‘Dining Together’, ‘Twin Paradox’ and ‘Anthology of Unknowingly Yours.’ They are an integration of sound, poems, videos, sculptures, paintings, crafts, photographs and drawings.

1- ‘Naqsh’ is an entangled network. It is layered with narratives of dislocations, travel, and memoir.

2- ‘Excerpts from Our All Wet Talk’ is about squabbling community identity with different yet similar orientations to their vernacular languages that is claimed on the ground of linguistic terrain and its squabble with look-alike or listen-alike languages.

3- ‘Wee-Arc’ deals with the sonic intervention that is integral to everyday walk.

4- ‘Dining together’ is an animistic interference in the ecstasy of eating together in the metro city.

5- ‘Twin Paradox’ experiments with conventional and modern wood block-making process. The prints make embedded sameness and togetherness as image and impressions. Those set different trajectory of travel in time.

6- ‘Anthology of Unknowingly Yours’ plays seven videos in the loop to unfold a zone of isolation, separation, and longing.