The exhibition a sunlit site, humid and warm has its origins in the South Korean village of Yangji-ri, one of the 112 Minbuk-settlements built under government control near the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. There, artist Chan Sook Choi explored the biographies and stories of the residents and crossed past and present focusing on memories and personal narratives in the Yangji-ri Archive. The result is a comprehensive picture of the local community.

In her artistic research, Chan explores the relationship of people to the places they inhabit and how ownership of land is defined. In the work qbit to adam, she researched the world’s largest copper mine in the Chilean Andes to investigate how land is occupied and appropriated by states, corporations and individuals. These global dynamics can be traced back to the local and show how places and individual realities are influenced by the forces that unfold around them.

The title of the exhibition is a combination of the word Yangji-ri, which translates as “sunlit site” and the regional climatic characteristics. The descriptions “humid and warm” open up a physical dimension linked to intimacy and fragility. The title underlines that it is hardly possible to describe a place without taking into account its multi-layered historical, social and (socio-)political issues.

Curated by Vincent Schier

Chan Sook Choi (1977 / KR) has developed a visual vocabulary that revolves around the themes of movement, migration and community and draws on intensive and site-specific research. She has had solo exhibitions in South Korea and Taiwan and has been awarded the Korean Art Prize. Choi has participated in biennials internationally and has been represented in numerous group exhibitions in South Korea, Canada, Australia, the Czech Republic, Austria, the Netherlands and Denmark.

Vincent Schier works on ecological and social sustainability and social participation. As artistic director of the Kunstverein Göttingen, he was responsible for curating the annual programs 2021 and 2022, before that he was curator at the Kunsthaus Dresden, where he also co-curated extensive projects in the following years. He currently supports the artists of the Uferhallen production site and cultural center both structurally and programmatically in their efforts to ensure the continued existence of the studio location, where more than 100 artists work. After working for the grassroots organized art association neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst (nGbK) for several years, he has now been a member of the board for four years and is part of the curatorial group that is responsible for the artistic-curatorial and transnational research project SALT. CLAY. ROCK., which deals with nuclear issues in Germany and Hungary. Vincent has realized projects for the Kunsthalle Exnergasse Vienna, the neue berliner kunstverein n.b.k, the Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, the Kunsthalle Osnabrück, the Schwules Museum Berlin and the KW Institute for Contemporary Art, among others, and has taught at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig and the Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule in Halle.

The Workshops “Can art convey art?” are sponsored by the VGH Stiftung.

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