5th Anyang Public Art Project—APAP 5

Anyang Foundation for Culture & Arts and APAP 5 Artistic Director Eungie Joo are pleased to announce invited artists for the 5th Anyang Public Art Project, which will open October 15, 2016.

Anyang is located just over 20 kilometers south of Seoul. The 15th largest city in South Korea, it takes its name from a historic temple founded during the Goryeo Dynasty (918–1392 ACE), Anyang-sa, named for the Buddhist concept of heaven, or the utopia where people wish to be reborn. Surrounded by the Gwanak, Samseong, Suri, Cheongye, and Morak Mountains, as well as eight rivers and streams, today the city retains a strong spiritual significance. First developed during the Japanese occupation and an official satellite city during the expansion of Seoul, Anyang suffered massive devastation during the Korean War, industrial pollution from the now defunct textile and paper manufacturing industries, and land displacement from flooding in the 1970s. Its rebirth has split the city in two: the wealthy bedroom community of Pyeongchon to the east, and an aging downtown in Manan-gu to the west.

Today the people of Anyang live tactile experiences of work, school, family, neighborhood, city, and nation. And like many of us, they also live in an increasingly collapsed world of real and simulated experience, striving to maintain their specificity, pace, and economic stability. A city long in service to others, its art and development initiative, the Anyang Public Art Project (APAP) sought to reassert a unique cultural presence. Since 2005, the project has brought over 80 art and architectural interventions to the city, yet continues to struggle for relevance locally and nationally. APAP 5 recognizes the uniqueness of this place and wonders: how can we experience meaningful, shared moments in real time? How can such experiences improve our comprehension of the larger world? How can we expand our understanding of our roles in intersecting communities that come together to form a society? And how can we appreciate the responsibilities and dreams such roles require?

APAP 5 will present works in public by over 20 artists and collectives installed throughout the city of Anyang including: Cho Eunji (b. 1973 Korea. L/W Seoul) / House of Natural Fiber/HONF (founded 1999, Yogyakarta, Indonesia) / Im Heung Soon (b. 1969 Korea. L/W Seoul) / Michael Joo (b. 1966 US. L/W New York) / Chosil Kil (b. 1975 Korea. L/W London) / Kim Beom (b. 1963 Korea. L/W Seoul) + Choi Seungho (b.1984, L/W Seoul) / Byron Kim (b. 1961 US. L/W New York) / Christina Kim (b. 1957 Korea. L/W Los Angeles) / Kim Jinjoo (b. 1977 Korea. L/W Suwon & Seoul) / Sora Kim (b. 1965 Korea. L/W Seoul) / Simone Leigh (b. 1968 US. L/W New York) / mixrice (founded 2002, Seoul, Korea) / Oscar Murillo (b. 1986 Colombia. L/W London) / Damián Ortega (b. 1967 Mexico. L/W Mexico City) / Bona Park (b. 1977 Korea. L/W Seoul) / Park Chan-kyong (b. 1965 Korea. L/W Seoul) / Gabriel Sierra (b. 1975 Colombia. L/W Bogota) / Lisa Sigal (b. 1962 US. L/W New York) / Stone & Water (founded 2002, Anyang, Korea) / SUPERFLEX (founded 1993, Copenhagen, Denmark) / Adrián Villar Rojas (b. 1980 Argentina. L/W Rosario) / Danh Võ (b. 1975 Vietnam. L/W Mexico City & Berlin). The final list of participating artist will be announced in September 2016.

The project begins with community workshops and research starting this summer, opening events on October 15-16, 2016, public programs and temporary works on view through December 15, 2016, and a catalogue release scheduled for April 2017. House of Natural Fiber will present Anyang Public Lab—a research program, creative incubation program, and public project presentation aimed at broadening the exchange of skills between artists and creative people with entrepreneurs and technologists, November 8–19, 2016.

APAP 5 Artistic Director Eungie Joo was curator of Sharjah Biennial 12: The past, the present, the possible (2015) in the United Arab Emirates. She was Keith Haring Director and Curator of Education and Public Programs at the New Museum, New York (2007–12), where she led the Museum as Hub initiative, curated the 2012 Triennial, The Ungovernables and published the Art Spaces Directory (2012), a guide to over 400 independent art spaces from 97 countries. Joo was commissioner of the Korean Pavilion at the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009 and founding Director and Curator of the Gallery at REDCAT, Los Angeles (2003–07). Joo has appointed Jang Hyejin and Park Jaeyong as curators of APAP 5. Jang previously served as curatorial team manager of SeMA Biennale, Mediacity Seoul 2014: Ghosts, Spies, and Grandmothers. Park was curator of exhibitions at Ilmin Museum of Art, Seoul. Jang and Park are founders of the curatorial project Work on Work.

About APAP: Since 2005, Anyang Public Art Project has created links between art, architecture, and design under former artistic directors Lee Young Chul, Kim Sungwon, Kyong Park, and Beck Jee-sook. APAP is the only recurring international art event in Korea dedicated to public art. Over the past ten years, Anyang City has installed artworks by Korean and international artists and architects including Choi Jeong Hwa, Sylvie Fleury, Dan Graham, Gimhongsok, Jeppe Hein, Lo-Tech, MVDRV, Navin Rawanchaikul, Álvaro Siza Vieira, and Rirkrit Tiravanija, many of which are still on view today.

For more information, please visit apap.or.kr.

For press information, please contact press@apap.or.kr