The Postmemory Generation in South Korea:
Contemporary Korean Arts and Films on the Memories of the Korean War 2000-2020
Friday · October 7, 2022 · 4 PM
UCI Humanities Gateway 1010
Dong-Yeon Koh, an art critic, has served as a mentor and committee in art residencies and museums in South Korea over the last two decades, while publishing academic essays and books on contemporary Korean art--with the focus on popular culture, gender theory, and memory studies. Dr. Koh was the commissioner of the Goyang Outdoor Sculpture Festival (2017, 2018) and co-director of Art 2021. She also served as the managing committee of NaMAF (Seoul International ALT Cinema & Media Festival) (2017-2021). Koh received her Ph. D in Art History and Doctorate Certificate in Film Theory at the Graduate Center, the City University of New York in 2006. Her research papers and art criticism have been published in academic journals worldwide including Inter-Asia Journal of Cultural Studies (Routledge), Flash Art, Modern Art Asia, Photography and Culture (Routledge), and Positions (Duke University Press). Koh’s recent books include From Softpower to Goods: Alternative Forms of Exhibitions and Populist Artistic Practices in Post-1990s East Asian Art (Seoul, 2018), The Condition for Art Criticism (Seoul, 2019), and Korean War and Post-memory Generation: The Arts and Films in South Korea (London: Routledge, 2021). She is currently an adjunct lecturer at Seoul National University.
For any questions, please contact at ccks@uci.edu
The Postmemory Generation in South Korea: Contemporary Korean Arts and Films on the Memories of the Korean War 2000-2020
What has happened to the postmemory generation in South Korea, a country notorious for conflicting views toward the Korean and Cold War among different generations throughout a range of political and cultural spectrums? This talk provides a rare opportunity to take an in-depth look at the generational gap in postwar South Korean society and, as well as the ongoing ideological conflict in South Korea. Presented by Dong-Yeon Koh, an art critic active in Seoul and author of The Korean War and Postmemory Generation (London: Routledge, 2021), it also serves as an important avenue towards understanding contemporary Korean arts and films on the Korean War by the generation of artists born after the late 1960s and afterward.
The imagery of the Korean War and its legacy certainly constituted an important part of Korea’s national image both within and outside of the Korean peninsula. While some individuals have relegated the events of the War to the past, for others, it remains an “active” conflict that still rages on, unabated, in the present day. In that respect, I will explore disparate approaches towards the Korean War among different postwar generations in South Korea—its interpretation, the continued threat of North Korean invasion, the North-South’s relationship, and the future of unification. At the same time, this talk also introduces several notable artworks in South Korea found in documentary photography related to the remnants of the War and militaristic conflicts, participatory art projects staged at the Demilitarized Zone, independent films on paternal silence, media installations using sounds, voice narrations, and olfactory sensations related to the memories of War and veterans from the last two decades. This talk will open up about how the younger generation began reacting differently toward the memory of the Korean War after the War ended more than six decades ago. Their different perceptions and attitudes toward the War, as reflected in contemporary Korean art after the 2000s, reflect the diverse and changing perception of the beginning of the Nation’s birth and national identities in postwar South Korean society.
The talk will be accompanied by images of notable artworks by 13 contemporary Korean artists and filmmakers in the artistic genres of documentary photography, participatory arts, performance arts, documentary films media installations, and memorials.