South Korea’s top artists showcase artworks jointly with Indian counterparts at Synthesis of Difference
This art exhibition will remain open for public viewing from 17th August to 30th September at Korean Cultural Centre India (KCCI), New Delhi.
NEW DELHI: Korean Cultural Centre India (KCCI) is delighted to present the art exhibition “Synthesis of Difference”, an exhibition that portrays the amalgamation of classic + modern, analogue + digital, static + kinetic through new media art, paintings, animation, video art, installation, and performances by bringing together works of 4 country representative artists from South Korea and 6 Indian artists.
The art exhibition was opened for public viewing on the 17th August in the presence of Chang Jae Bok, the Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to India, Adwaita Gadanayak (Director General of National Gallery of Modern Art), Jaya Asokan (Director of India Art Fair), Mahinder Sehgal (Programme Director of Indian Council for Cultural Relations), and the Artists and Curators. The exhibition will end on 30th September.
In his speech, Chang Jae Bok, the Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to India, said, “Through this exhibition, art lovers and you will have a unique opportunity to appreciate rich artistic traditions of Korea and India, realize the subtle similarities and differences in out two countries’ artistic creations and develop mutual understanding.”, rightly summing up the essence of this exhibition.
Adwaita Gadanayak, the Director General of National Gallery of Modern Art, said, “The artwork is like meditation, a synthesis of time and space that has been done in layers, and once you start peeling this layer you discover the hardwork everyone has put in”
Jeong Heon Ki, the curator of this exhibition said, “ Koreans have India on their bucket lists. Through this exhibition, I hope their will be more art exchange between Korea and India in the future as well”
The opening ceremony could be seen as the mirror of the cultural exchange showcased in the exhibition and signified by the traditional lamp lighting ceremony.
The modern human epoch is witnessing a state of critical indifference: the trajectories of time, uncertain and in crisis are plunged into an undifferentiated abyss where everything is dissolved. ‘Difference’ is therefore a departure from the synthesis of manufactured time, which synchronises our lives and experiences, from the repetition of our past, and the rhythmic modalities of survival.
Synthesis of Time
Time is a tool to synchronise our lives and experiences: it helps us understand memory, its past, present, and future through its spatio-temporal synthesis.
Through this exhibition, we reflect on the synthesis of artistic expressions of what we deem in plain sight as two different echoes of cultural image-making and ideation. The coming together of artistic practices from Korea and India is a way to explore the synthesis of difference and how it reflects on our collective time, shared experiences, and their geographic and temporal positionality.
And by mediating differences and using synthesis as a tool we can reflect upon how diverse artistic expressions can become a way to emerge out of the undifferentiated abyss and the threats of the Anthropocene to form becomings that synthesise human and everything other-than-human.
Purpose of Exhibition
The synthesis of differences can be seen as the impetus for creativity. The formulation of this exhibition is therefore crucial in bringing together contemporary art practices from Korea and India to understand the synthesis of difference, time and place through two vastly different cultures. In bringing together diverse perspectives that question and proposes diverse ways to synthesise difference, this exhibition will explore time as a visual language.
The exhibition situates works of contemporary Korean artists such as Lee LeeNam, Lee Jean Lok and Haru Kim along with works by contemporary Indian artists such as Paribartana Mohanty’s work on memory and ecology, Birendra Yadav’s work on labour identity, B Ajay Sharma’s practice with time and space, Jihyoung Park’s reflection on the collective consciousness, and Harpreet’s work on Gibberish as an unspoken language, to understand the Synthesis of time and space across divergent cultures.
