[Gallery Talk] Gallery Loop to spread Asian art
This is the sixth in a 10-part series on prominent art galleries in Korea. – Ed
Korea’s contemporary art market, culture and environment have greatly changed over the last 10 years, according to Suh Jin-suk, director of Gallery Loop.
Along with Project Space Sarubia and Art Space Pool, Gallery Loop has been one of the nation’s leading non-profit alternative art spaces since its establishment in 1999.
“Alternative spaces have changed their goal and role in accordance with such changes. They should, because if they don‘t, they will become mainstream,” said Suh.
The biggest goal of alternative spaces ten years ago was to discover and support young artists but this is no longer the case, asserted Suh.
“There was no such thing as a proper art market or the concept of professional artists in Korea back then. Over 97 percent of the galleries lent their spaces to artists, which meant young and talented artists who could not afford the rent could not survive. But after the Korean art market really got bigger in the mid-2000s, most galleries and museums started to support young artists as if they were trying to prebuy good products. So, supporting new artists is not as important as it was before. We used to assign more than 90 percent of our exhibitions to young artists but now that figure is about 30 percent,” he said.
“Now we have another goal, to lessen the gap between Asian art and world art, which seems to have grown wider in the last ten years. It has become important for everything to reach a certain global standard after the worldwide economic crisis. We are building international networks and actively participating in exchanges to reach the goal.”
The Asia Art Award, a newly created combination of an art prize ceremony, exhibition and forum jointly organized by CJ Culture Foundation, Korea Sports Promotion Foundation and Gallery Loop, is one good example. The first AAA winner, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, also took home the Palme D’Or at Cannes International Film Festival last month.
“AAA is designed to discover and cultivate the talents of young Asian artists and provide them with a system that will support the international promotion and circulation of their art. We receive more positive responses from overseas than from Korea. I even saw a Japanese webzine criticizing their country for not having initiated such a project,” said Suh.
Though many commercial galleries and museums are also aiming for the world market by collaborating with foreign galleries and artists, Suh said the approach taken by alternative spaces is different.
“It is different because we don’t just deal with artworks and exhibitions. We focus on creating a discourse. About 20 to 30 curators participated in the AAA, for example. It is not a one-time event but the basis of building a new infrastructure,” said Suh.
It is not an easy task to run an alternative art space, however, due to financial reasons. Ssamzie, which used to be one of the leading alternative art spaces, recently closed down as the group Ssamzie went bankrupt.
“Yes, it is hard to raise funds because alternative spaces usually lack popularity and most enterprises only support projects that are popular. Loop is run 40 percent by government support, 30 percent by funds raised through art projects and enterprises, and 30 percent by the fund from a design firm under Gallery Loop.”
But this does not mean that alternative art spaces have to force themselves to get closer with the public, he said.
“We don’t have to, because we are supposed to suggest new trends. But I do think that the gap between Loop and the public has narrowed much compared to when we started. Many non-professionals visit the Loop while only students who major in art or professionals in art used to come. I think more people are starting to love experimental works and I am sure that the line between professionals and non-professionals is blurring,” he said.
“I hope Gallery Loop can suggest a new platform in the world market and show what kind of meaning Asian art can have in the world contemporary art. Personally, I hope I can become one of the most important curators in the world.”
For more information on Gallery Loop, visit www.galleryloop.com.
By Park Min-young (claire@heraldm.com)
Korea’s contemporary art market, culture and environment have greatly changed over the last 10 years, according to Suh Jin-suk, director of Gallery Loop.
Along with Project Space Sarubia and Art Space Pool, Gallery Loop has been one of the nation’s leading non-profit alternative art spaces since its establishment in 1999.
“Alternative spaces have changed their goal and role in accordance with such changes. They should, because if they don‘t, they will become mainstream,” said Suh.
The biggest goal of alternative spaces ten years ago was to discover and support young artists but this is no longer the case, asserted Suh.
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| Gallery Loop director Suh Jin-suk Park Hae-mook/ The Korea Herald |
“Now we have another goal, to lessen the gap between Asian art and world art, which seems to have grown wider in the last ten years. It has become important for everything to reach a certain global standard after the worldwide economic crisis. We are building international networks and actively participating in exchanges to reach the goal.”
The Asia Art Award, a newly created combination of an art prize ceremony, exhibition and forum jointly organized by CJ Culture Foundation, Korea Sports Promotion Foundation and Gallery Loop, is one good example. The first AAA winner, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, also took home the Palme D’Or at Cannes International Film Festival last month.
“AAA is designed to discover and cultivate the talents of young Asian artists and provide them with a system that will support the international promotion and circulation of their art. We receive more positive responses from overseas than from Korea. I even saw a Japanese webzine criticizing their country for not having initiated such a project,” said Suh.
Though many commercial galleries and museums are also aiming for the world market by collaborating with foreign galleries and artists, Suh said the approach taken by alternative spaces is different.
“It is different because we don’t just deal with artworks and exhibitions. We focus on creating a discourse. About 20 to 30 curators participated in the AAA, for example. It is not a one-time event but the basis of building a new infrastructure,” said Suh.
It is not an easy task to run an alternative art space, however, due to financial reasons. Ssamzie, which used to be one of the leading alternative art spaces, recently closed down as the group Ssamzie went bankrupt.
“Yes, it is hard to raise funds because alternative spaces usually lack popularity and most enterprises only support projects that are popular. Loop is run 40 percent by government support, 30 percent by funds raised through art projects and enterprises, and 30 percent by the fund from a design firm under Gallery Loop.”
But this does not mean that alternative art spaces have to force themselves to get closer with the public, he said.
“We don’t have to, because we are supposed to suggest new trends. But I do think that the gap between Loop and the public has narrowed much compared to when we started. Many non-professionals visit the Loop while only students who major in art or professionals in art used to come. I think more people are starting to love experimental works and I am sure that the line between professionals and non-professionals is blurring,” he said.
“I hope Gallery Loop can suggest a new platform in the world market and show what kind of meaning Asian art can have in the world contemporary art. Personally, I hope I can become one of the most important curators in the world.”
For more information on Gallery Loop, visit www.galleryloop.com.
By Park Min-young (claire@heraldm.com)
