photograph courtesy of the artist
Korean Pavilion – Lee Yonbaek: The Love is Gone But the Scar Will Heal. In the Korean Pavilion in the Giardini Lee Yongbaek’s The Love is Gone But the Scar Will Heal exhibition whose fourteen works, in different mediums reveals the pain and history of Korea’s modern politics and culture, and its hope for the future.
Above: Pieta: Self-Death. The Pieta series takes the relationship between Jesus and Mary from the classical work Pieta, and parodies it by using two elements of sculptural casting: the mould and the moulded figure itself. In the statue above the mould is the Virgin Mary holding the dead, moulded figure Jesus. The relationship between producer and the produced insinuates a process of self-reproduction, in which elements of biological gender are eliminated.
Broken Mirror. Lee Yonbaek’s video work Broken Mirror is composed of a mirror, a flat screen and a computer, this piece explores the collapse of boundary between the so-called real space and virtual space. This simple, yet captivating work displays a mirror seemingly to be suddenly breaking with ear-splitting sound.
Angel Soldier. Angel Soldier is a video performance in which at a glance, the viewer sees a beautiful scene with flowers and hears the calming sounds of nature. However, it is actually a superficial scene in which soldiers wearing military uniforms in flower prints slowly move in an artificial flower jungle. The camouflage, trickery, and the desperate movement present the political situations of Korea.
Plastic Fish. In Lee Yonbaek’s colourful painting, Plastic Fish, images of bait are painted close-up and in hyperrealist style, amplifying its essence as a simulacrum. This work tells the story of how an artificial fish captures the real fish for survival, only to be killed by it.