Opening Reception: Friday, September 17, 4.00PM

Arts Council Korea’s Arko Art Center presents Yi’s Emergence, a 2010 Special Exhibition celebrating the 100-year anniversary of Yi Sang’s birth (September 23, 1910 – April 17, 1937). The exhibition examines Korean Modernity in the 1930’s through the work of Yi Sang, a key figure in contemporary Korean literature. From his birth during an era of hopelessness under the Japanese occupation until his death in Japan in 1937, the exhibition traces his life using artifacts from the time period. In addition, the exhibition seeks to demystify the mythic status of his exceptionally modernist and unique body of work, which continually strived for esthetic freedom, by reinterpreting them within a multifaceted contemporaneous context of literature, art, architecture, and design. Furthermore, contemporary experimental artwork that blur the boarder between reality and art are included along with works by Yi Sang, who was agonizing over the gap between artistic ideology and reality, in order to examine various contemporaneous meanings of the different works.

Arko Art Center Special Exhibition Yi’s Emergence <木3氏의出發>
In line with Arko Art Center’s continued efforts to unify various genres Yi’s Emergence is an interdisciplinary project that emphasizes the mutuality of form and matter and amplifies the process of communication and a variety of interpretation that results from it. By including diverse interpretations on Yi Sang by experts in numerous fields the exhibition avoids a singular evaluation of the author and focuses on forming a new discourse through communication. Through an interdisciplinary view of contemporary art, culture, architecture and design the exhibition reexamines the artistic life of the multitalented intellectual from the1930’s - 40’s and explores the meaning of his experimental and uniquely sensuous body of work within a contemporaneous arts context.

The vibrant Yi Sang who breathed in tune with other contemporary artists
Yi Sang’s influence as a prominent modernist from the 20’-30’s and the modernist spectrum that has continued since then are examined through the artwork of four contemporary artists (Byron Kim, Yeondoo Jung, Jeong Young hoon, and Cha Ji ryang).

Along with the avant-garde artworks by Kim Whan ki, Yoo Young kuk, and Ku Pon ung, a good friend of Yi Sang and a quintessential artist of the 1930’s modernist painting, seven paintings that test the limits of American modernist painting by Byron Kim will be on view as well. Unlike Yi Sang’s paradise lost, which exists only in concept, Yeondoo Jung finds paradise in other people’s lives. The young artist Cha Ji ryang also tries to provide wings for the contemporary young generation by roaming the glamorous night streets of Seoul in search of a contemporary paradise while Jeong Young hoon provides the audience with a first-hand experience of recreating Yi Sang’s texts by recombining his words that float about inside the interactive media work.

The Artist’s Room: Jaebi Café, Gyeong Seong, Department Store, and Theater
Yi Sang’s outstanding visualization in interpreting text and his exceptional awareness and understanding of space due to his higher education as an architecture student are all visually materialized in the four Artist’s Rooms. Jaebi Café highlights Yi Sang’s versatile talents that straddle wide-ranging media and styles. The streets of Gyeong Seong closely embody the inner poverty the writer felt as he lived through an era of outwardly abundance of the 30’s in contrast to the prevailing sense of loss under the Japanese imperialists. Additionally, the rectangular space of the department store and theater reveal Yi Sang’s inner depression as he viewed the artificial city.  Yi Sang’s world filled with the exhaustive struggle of being the head of a household while facing imminent death and his creative passion that overflowed towards a modernist conquest despite his physical battle with hemoptysis is exhibited along side young contemporary artist’s work that most likely reflect Yi Sang’s youthful image. Included in the exhibition are all the published works by Yi Sang during his lifetime, collections of writings by later generation of scholars based on Yi Sang’s endless poetic inspiration that range widely in their interpretations and meanings, audio and video recordings by Yi Sang experts, movies, examples of design work, and contemporary artwork. A variety of academic public programs in conjunction with the exhibit provide a stage for diverse interpretations.

Yi’s Emergence presented in Daehak-ro, coincidentally the same neighborhood where Yi Sang’s first job after finishes his schooling was located, will provide a platform for portraying Yi Sang in a new light within a contemporary literary arts context. Simultaneously, Yi Sang’s highly architectural spatial concepts, his sensual use of language, his avant-garde and diverse body of work, the depressing atmosphere of the times, and his health problem will offer a chance to experience numerous multi-layered interpretations.

An Annotation About the Title of the Exhibition:
Utilizing the physical appearance of the letters themselves as symbols or deconstructing them into ambiguous signs is one of the many peculiarities of Yi Sang’s writings. This characteristic directly correlates with the theme of the exhibition and hence inspired the title of the exhibition “木3氏의出發” (Yi’s Emergence). It appropriates a poem written in Japanese and published in Chosun and Architecture (July 1932) titled "且8氏의出發" (Cha’s Emergence) which is considered to be one of his most enigmatic poems and raises numerous speculative interpretations.

Public Programs
- September 17th (Friday) 5:30PM
Lecture: The Secrete of Yi Sang’s Texts
Lecturer: Kwon Young min (Professor of Dept. of Korean Language and Literature, College of Humanities, Seoul National University)
- September 18th (Saturday) 2:00PM
Artist Talk: Byron Kim’s Artwork and the Modernist Painting
Speaker: Byron Kim (Artist; The Chair of the Board of Governors, Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture)
- October 1st (Friday) 5:00PM
Lecture: Yi Sang and Korean Modern Architecture
Lecturer: Ahn Chang mo (Professor of  The Graduate School of Architecture, Kyonggi University)