Venue: SongEun Art Cube

Press release

Juwon Lee has been keen on the reality of today’s information society, in which people indiscriminately and systematically embrace the constant overflow of information on the internet, SNS and other media without distinguishing truth from falsehood. The artist takes the format of mockumentary¹ to make up a virtual story and uses a plausible compilation of documentaries, interviews and videos shot by third parties as evidence. Paintings, installations and performances are employed with videos to make the narrative more reliable.

Juwon’s Did Kim Jong-un Support PSY? in 2013 is an early work of such mockumentaries. This video shows Kim Jong-un plotting evil schemes, tapping on Psy’s global popularity and taking advantage of their physical resemblance. The artist created such fictional story and edited it with news clips, footages of interviews and artwork trading scenes, adding a sense of realism. This was followed by Unknown Portrait: Looted by Nazis (2014), a video work, painting and installation, based on a made-up story unveiling a portrait of a mysterious, unknown woman by an unknown painter - one of many artworks plundered by Hitler. Sacred Bugs: South Korea (2016) is about a traditional custom passed down from generations in the village of Gulun-ri, Hongcheon. A myth has it that the Grand Monk Gulun gave a painting of butterflies and beetles to a couple who had been long aspiring for a baby. When the couple finally had the baby after receiving the painting, the villagers began to hang paintings of flowers and trees to attract butterflies and beetles. An interview with a shaman explaining this myth adds credibility to the narrative. The artist’s way of getting his fictional story to be misunderstood as a real case or actual recording based on his intention sets his works apart from typical documentaries. A rather absurd, groundless plot combined with somewhat clumsy and awkward editing makes the audience to constantly raise questions about what is real and fake.

In this exhibition, Juwon presents a series called Neila (2015-2017), introducing a new religion that worships aliens as God. An Italian-Russian physicist John is called by God to leave for Alaska, where he gets chosen as the savior of Earth. Then John returns to Russia to create this new religion Neila. Based on this narrative, the artist creates the basic doctrine and methods of prayer and communication to provide evidentiary support. To make Neila more credible, Lee devised religious icons, as is the case for steeples in churches or cathedrals, the cross in Christianity or the swastika in Buddhism. He made sure to add elements that are essential in a new religion, such as a form of praying with folded thumbs and ring fingers rather than the conventional way of clasping two hands together. Promotional videos of afterlife and religious trainings were also created to boost the religious belief of the followers. In an interview with experts on religion, foreigners make an intended appearance, making the viewers who do not understand their language to completely rely on the Korean subtitles. And yet the viewers are guided to believe in what the foreigners are saying, from their serious tone and manner that adroitly befits the subtitles. The performance showing how to communicate with the aliens makes the audience to believe that - probably due to the seriousness of the narrator - such Neila may truly exist.

 

+http://songeunartspace.org/programs/user/cube/cube_en_start.asp