Art Gathing Kyung Hee University, Seoul

Active artists among the international Korean adoptees network were represented at the Art Gathering at Kyung Hee University, Seoul. Many expressions seemed to me to be born out the life long process of (re)constructing one's own personal history - without being reduced to the works of art of adoptees. The represented works included the insights and transformations of the artists, making this Art Gathering a resourceful art expression with represented works of video artists, painters, photographers and architects.




Ender Gelgec, Turkey made this piece and to me it was an emotional and thought provoking experience to sit in front of all these papers - which had the connotation to me as adoptee of being files, cases with numbers on orphans. Paper still carries the past to those reading it in the present. Paper is still one of the strongest medias, because it occupies physical space and thus represents bodies in time and place. So many children, so many mothers and fathers.. the work offered a chair into which one could sit and be confronted with this wall of papers, files, notes...

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Sendt af kimchi-dk

Another was a mesmerizing video work by Unn Fahlstrøm, Norway, which stirred the need to see more, to know more, to find out the bigger picture that is thought to be present behind..the tiny window view of something recognisable yet unknown keeps the mind occupied, looking for meaning for the bigger picture.. just like adoptees growing up looking for answers and a place for our roots to grow strong..seeing small glimpses of one self in the mirror and a face of Korean descent yet not knowing the whole picture..