Exhibit revisits historic photo show

Arts & Design

Published: 06 Apr. 2016, 20:27

Exhibit revisits historic photo show

[SEMA]

Since last year, a series of art events to celebrate the 130th year of diplomatic ties between Korea and France have been taking place in the two countries. As part of them, several new art exhibitions recently started.

A large-scale photography exhibition that started on Tuesday at the Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) and Ilwoo Space in central Seoul has an interesting title: “The Family of the Invisibles.”

Those who have studied the history of photography would at once notice the title comes from “The Family of Man,” a monumental photo exhibition held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1955.

American photographer Cindy Sherman’s “Untitled No. 67”(1980), left, and American photographer Diane Arbus’s “Untitled 4”(1970-71) are part of “The Family of the Invisibles,” a large-scale photography exhibition curated by French experts that runs through May 29 at the Seoul Museum of Art and Ilwoo Space in central Seoul as part of cultural events to celebrate the 130th year of Korea-France diplomatic ties. [SEMA]

The exhibition running through May 29 proposes an alternative to “The Family of Man” by presenting 210 photographic works that focus on minorities or humans in out-of-the-ordinary conditions. The works on display are from the collections of two French institutions - the Centre National des Arts Plastiques (CNAP) in Paris and Fonds Regional d’Art Contemporain Aquitaine in Bordeaux. The chief curators of the institutions and an expert in the French philosopher Roland Barthes (1915-80) co-curated the Seoul exhibition.

“The exhibition has its anchor in the theory of photography in ‘Camera Lucida,’ an iconic book written by Barthes which had a significant influence on photography, contemporary art, cultural discourse and epistemology,” the museum explained on its website. “Based on Barthes’s idea which paid attention to invisible and marginalized beings, the exhibition criticizes the notion of an imaginary community of mankind, which was previously presented in ‘The Family of Man.’”

The exhibition is divided into four parts. Part 1 features photos related to the “Deconstruction of Myths” about patriarchy and other authorities. The works on display include American artist Jeff Koons’s photos of satirical tones and French photographer Robert Doisneau’s works that interpret the prevalent veneration of iconic works of art such as the “Mona Lisa.”

Part 2, “Into the Neutral,” explores the possibility of an authorless work, based on Barthes’s 1967 essay “The Death of the Author.” The exhibits include American artist Roni Horn’s photos that represent contemplation and American photographer Walker Evans’s well-known photos of objectivity.

Part 3, “Invisibles,” is the highlight of the exhibition, as the works on display shed light on the “minorities and the voiceless” including the homeless, refugees, transgender people and others. The photos on display include American photographer Diane Arbus’s photos of marginalized people including the portrait of four intellectually handicapped people in masks. French photographer Philippe Bazin’s series - close-up portraits of new-born babies and old persons directly before death - leave striking impressions.

Left: Korean sculptor Chung Hyun’s works are on display at the Jardin des Palais Royal in Paris. Center and right: Paris-based Korean artist Bang Hai Ja’s paintings are part of her show at the Youngeun Museum of Contemporary Art in Gyeonggi. [HAKGOJAE, YOUNGEUN MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART]

The exhibition starts from a critical view of the 1955 “The Family of Man” exhibition’s “homogenization of the human condition, which doesn’t make space for otherness and doesn’t take into account the diversity and reality of situations,” Pascal Beausse, head of the photographic collection at CNAP, said in a press conference at SeMA on Tuesday. He is one of the three curators of “The Family of Invisibles,” which he said “gives priority to those who have been left in the margins.”

Part 4, “Fiction of the Self,” is about the individual mythologies and personal worlds in the times of “the end of great narratives.” The part features photographers including Nobuyoshi Araki of Japan and Cindy Sherman of the United States.

Meanwhile, as part of other events to celebrate the 130th year of Korea-France diplomatic ties, Korean sculptor Chung Hyun’s works are now on display at the Jardin des Palais Royal in Paris. Furthermore, Paris-based Korean artist Bang Hai Ja’s solo show is ongoing at the Youngeun Museum of Contemporary Art in Gyeonggi.

BY MOON SO-YOUNG [symoon@joongang.co.kr]