Group Exhibition SOOLSOOL Center, Soul, Korea
Curator: Jongeun Lim
Associate Curator: Junghyun Kim
Artists: Jipyeong Kim, Hwayong Kim, Seungbok Roh + Panseop Shin + Salty Caramel, Hyungmin Moon, Wan Lee, Irwan Ahmett & Tita Salina, Elia Nurvista, Tang Maohong, Chen Ching-Yao, Kiyoko Sakata
Sponsored by: Arts Council Korea, Yeongdeungpo Cultural Foundation
Danjjan* is a new term that refers to the overconsumption of salt and sugar. With one linked to our survival and the other to addiction, sugar and salt are often deemed completely different to each oth-er. However, they do share one thing in common; that their introduction, production and consumption growth coincided with the modernization of Korea, from the opening of its port to the colonial period as well as the national division. Like an analogy of modern people under the yoke of addiction and survival, danjjan has become a social phenomenon spurred by mass media.
Departing from the addictive consumption sugar and salt, the exhibition Sugar and Salt explores top-ics spread from them including modernization, globalization, social phenomenon and environmental issues. Notably, it invites Asian contemporary artists who have been engaging with the historical con-text of sugar and salt r such as their production, distribution and consumption. Interweaving contem-poraneity and Asianness, it creates a platform that prompts discussion. The exhibition uses banal food ingredients as instruments that dismantle the manifold layers of our lives, events and senses.
The exhibition brings together artists from Asia; Jipyeong Kim, Hwayong Kim, Seungbok Roh+ Panseop Shin+Salty Caramel, Hyungmin Moon, Wan Lee, Tang Maohong, Irwan Ahmett & Tita Sa-lina, Elia Nurvista, Kiyoko Sakata and Chen Ching-Yao. Reflecting on the history and memory through the lens of sugar and salt, artists use their artistic imagination to reinterpret the complex meanings inhered within. As much as sugar and salt are part of our everyday diet, we believe they could also lead us to contemplate the relationship of our body, history, civilization and nature, bringing forward alternative options that allow us to survive together.
(*Combining the Korean words dan, meaning ‘sweet’ and jjan meaning ‘salty’, danjjan is a new term that refers to the overconsumption of salt and sugar. For sugar’s addictive nature compared to the importance of salt in terms of our survival, the two ingredients show obvious distinction. Yet, they do share one thing in common; that their introduction, production and consumption growth coincided with the modernization of Korea, from the opening of its port to the colonial period and division of the two Koreas. Like an analogy of modern people under the yoke of addiction and survival, danjjan has be-come a social phenomenon spurred by mass media.)
○ Reflecting on the social boom of danjjan, the exhibition explores topics such as modernization, globalization, social phenomenon and environmental issues through the lens of salt and sugar.
○ Adopting an everyday subject that has existed throughout the history of humanity, Asian artists from Korea, China, Taiwan, Japan and Indonesia create a platform for discussion interweaving Asianness with contemporaneity.
○ Interpreting salt and sugar from different perspectives, works embody the organic relation of our body, history, civilization and nature, proposing alternative options and imagery of a coexisting future.
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