SeogyoSixty 2009: The Game for Respect

>Preface

The Game of Respect
Kim Noam l Director of Gallery Sangsangmadang
Seogyo Sixty 2009 – The Game of Respect is organized as an extended and
subsequent edition to the previous year’s The Battle of Taste.
We will prepare this edition of Seogyo Sixty, inviting a list of artists
recommended by art professionals as they have proven their own artistic tastes and values,
willingly or unwillingly, in the Korean contemporary art scene.
Today a variety of values, systems,
and powers collide and conflict with each other forming a balance.
This is the case not only in the field of art,
but also everywhere in politics, economics, society, history, and so on.
The Game of Respect is what we find in common among people who
coexist in such the increasingly convoluted society of today.
The Game of Respect is a fight for respect and the desire for respect.
And then, what is this respect actually for?
When asked this question, it will eventually be up to each individual’s matter of taste.
The world of pluralism and diversity is, on the other hand,
based on only a single truth of strict monism.
It is a single truthful value and strength of direction to the value that
leads us to a spiritual birthplace, safely or throughout the vicissitudes of life
and leads us to not to lose our way or our mind in the middle of such diverse values of pluralism.
The reason that the miniature universes of people, which are as numerous as grains of sand,
go glimmering and disappear while the world still operates normally is the very singular value that
jumps out of the net of pluralism. A lot of people combat each other individually for
their own individual values. This still seems valid in contemporary visual arts.
Emerging artists as emerging artists, established artists as established artists,
and master artists as master artists all present their aesthetic experiments and
explorations in the unknown world in the name of art.
All jump on the wagon of competition in an effort to be recognized by others.
There are of course some who refuse to join the secular game of respect.
However, it is a foul in the rules of the game.
Their choice is no longer considered in the context of art.
Such choice now becomes more of an outlook on life or a certain way of living.
It is not a matter of criticism and it is also an admirable and even respectable choice.
Therefore, we could say that “The Game of Respect” we are dealing with here is very small in area,
which still deserves respect as well.
Standing in the middle of a justifiable choice, we will gather as many opinions of
art professionals working in the field as possible.
We would like to show the utmost respect to their views.
We think it is also a process in the game of respect.

Some will find the idea of a respect game in the concept of
“respect battle” by Alexandre Kojéve (1902∼1968).
Kojéve understood the progress of history in Hegel’s philosophy based on
“struggles between masters and slaves” and the “life-death dialectic” and
defined a “respect battle” as the main concept.
Kojéve stated that the slaves or the subjects of productive activities play
a crucial role in the progress of history.
It may sound ironic in the distinction between the master and the slave.
It is an inversion of values.
For the master, the slave is a laborer. Making a logical leap, the creative laborers,
or artists are the heroic slaves in the progress of history.
And they are the subjects in the battle of respect.
We can catch a glimpse of the relationship between the subject
and the other through this process of a respect battle.
Some could think of a pro wrestlers’ battle shown in the
World Wrestling Entertainment or Smack Down on a cable TV network.
The wrestlers twist the arms of each other and yell at each other.
Spitting at their opponent, they bawl at the rivals furiously “Respect Me!”
It sounds like the roaring of a lion in battle.
Even these powerfully-built muscular men, seemingly to have descended from
an Olympian mountain, shake their fists to get respected.
We can sense such desire for respect in the spectacular scene of contemporary art.
A lot of artists around us display their artistic tastes and abilities quite freely.
The goal of the values and tastes they have may be different,
but no one can deny the simple and basic desire to be recognized and respected.
The game of respect in art is, ultimately, an effort to transcend a sense of futility
and something ephemeral for the limited being and to seek after eternity, which is immortality.
However, such respect is a respect between limited beings and
a respect from oblivion, whether it is unilateral or bilateral.

>Visiting Guideline

SeogyoSixty 2009: The Game for Respect
Part 1 2009.03.07[Sat] – 2009.04.05[Sun]
Part 2 2009.04.10[Fri] – 2009.05.10[Sun]

Open Hours
1:00pm – 10:00pm (Closed on First Monday of the Month)
Venue
KT&G Sangsangmadang
Admission
Free

Map

map

Directions

Subway
>Line no.2 to Hongik Univ. Station (way out 5), or Hapjung (way out 3)
>Line no.6 to Sangsoo (way out 1)

Bus
>A back gate of Hong-ik Univ.: Mapo 08
>An entry to Hong-ik Univ.: 271 / 273 / 602 5712 / 7016 / 7612 / 7711 / 1101 / 1301 / 1600
>Hong-ik Univ. Subway station: 603 / 604 / 760 / 5714 / 6712 / 6716 / 7737 1000 / 1100 / 1101 / 1200 / 1300 / 1301 1400 / 1500 / 1600 / 1601 / 921 / Mapo 09
>A front gate of Hong-ik Univ.: 7737 / 7011 / 273 / Mapo 08 / Mapo 09
>Seogyo Hotel : 271 / 602 / 603 / 604 / 760 5712 / 5714 / 6712 / 6716 / 7612 / 7737 / 6002 / 921

Car
Please use the public parking place where is the front of Sangsangmadang bld.

>Event

1. Main Events

>Event/Peformance
Part 1_Opening Event
2009.03.07 [Sat] 6:00 pm
Part 2_Opening Event
2009.04.10 [Fri] 6:00 pm
Venue : 2F Gallery / 02-330-6223

>Artist Talk
Artist Talk 1
2009.04. 04 [Sat] 4:00 pm
Artist Talk 2
2009.05. 02 [Sat] 4:00 pm
Venue : 2F Gallery / 02-330-6223

>Archive & Art Market
Seogyo Archive: Artists portfolio archive
2009.03.07 [Sat] - 05.10 [Sun] 1:00-10:00pm
Venue : 2F Gallery / 02-330-6223
Art Market
2009.03.07 [Sat] -0 5.10 [Sun] 1:00-10:00pm
Venue : 3F Art Market / 02-330-6225

2. Other Events

Infomation Desk
A general introduction to the exhibition and the 60 participating artists will be provided on the 2st floor Gallery.
Docent Program
5:00pm weekend (starting from the 2nd floor)