08.10.–11.11.2005

For this exhibition, Portikus is presenting six works from the Korean artist Chung Seoyoung (*1964 in Seoul) that take the particularities of the exhibition space into consideration. She has appended a platform with a handrail directly into the office of the exhibition space. With this architectonic mirroring, she ascribes a different function to the room she has been confronted with that enforces a stage-like quality.

One can read the following text on the outside of one of the exhibition space's walls:

He thought that if he was going to be lying in bed dying,

he would have liked to see five pigeons perched on the

window sill. In reality, he didn't like birds, but if

there had to be birds, better there be five of them.

Two floor lamps and drawings, spread out on the floor, are further works that deal with gaps and discrepancies between image and concept, word and object. The sculpture titled "Gatehouse" compels with its scale and reminds one of commonly encountered apartment buildings that are equipped with such structures. A bonfire made of blue synthetic material reflects an estranged virtuality.

One of Chung's artistic strategies is to redirect existing proportions as well as the displacement of borders between the internal and the external. She belongs to an artist generation that perceives the prevailing order of the everyday objects that we stumble across with skepticism. Her installations and sculptures set up a counterbalance where it is difficult to trace an individual position within the relevancy of existing categories.

Chung Seoyoung describes her work as an expression of the insubstantiation of reality:

"To put it concretely, it shows the fine demarcation between existence and non-existence. It is the result of exhaustive, thorough observation of how these elements influence one another. The reality of the daily grind, "the condition of existence"-so to speak- is upheld, while the condition of the works gives the greater impression of "non-existence" instead of choosing to change places and shift to the surreal. The work sometimes results from the employment of a solid formulation, at other times it takes a minute and likewise timid stance. A sense of the unreal emerges that deviates by a millimeter or a brief second in the nick of time.

The exhibition is a collaboration with Kim Sunjung and is supported by the Arts Council of Korea.