Kukje Gallery will participate in Code Art Fair at Bella Center in Copenhagen, Denmark, from August 30 to September 2, 2018. Code Art Fair was inaugurated in 2016 and is the only international art fair in Scandinavia. The third edition of the fair will feature 78 galleries from over 20 countries across 5 continents. Kukje Gallery is the sole participating gallery from not only Korea, but all of Asia. The gallery will feature modern and contemporary works by leading Korean and international artists. In anticipation of the 60th Anniversary of Korea-Denmark Diplomatic Relations next year in 2019, Kukje Gallery’s participation in Code Art Fair serves as a positive and meaningful acknowledgment of cultural exchange between the two nations. The city of Copenhagen, with its outstanding geographic location that connects Northern to Western Europe, has also witnessed a growing interest in contemporary art, further cementing the importance of establishing a direct dialogue with the region.
The 3rd edition of Code Art Fair showcases a diverse range of sections including the main section Code 3, featuring galleries selected by a curatorial committee; Performing Identities, a series of performances by young and emerging artists curated by independent curator and researcher Irene Campolmi; Next Generation and Art x Brand, a series of public talks that feature artists, curators, gallerists, and museum directors exploring contemporary art and its relationship to the larger society; and a curated film program titled Borderlands.
Marking its first-ever participation in Code Art Fair, the Kukje Gallery booth will showcase important works by leading modern and contemporary Korean artists. The display will include works by Dansaekhwa artists such as Lee Ufan’s seminal painting from the 1980s With Winds 伴著風 No.S8708-15 (1987), Kwon Young-Woo’s white hanji (Korean paper) works from the 1980s, Park Seo-Bo’s iconic Ecriture series, and Ha Chong-Hyun’s Conjunction series from the 2000s. These works will create essential context for Korea’s art history alongside works by subsequent generations of artists including Kim Yong-Ik’s dot paintings from the 1990s, Koo Bohnchang’s photographs from his Vessel series produced between 2004 and 2008, Haegue Yang’s artificial straw sculpture The Intermediate - Ikebana Dragon Ball (2016), Park Chan-kyong’s photographic series A Mountain (2008), and Kyungah Ham’s meticulously hand-embroidered paintings from 2014 through 2015.
Works by these Korean artists will be in dialogue with leading international contemporary artists: Byron Kim, who is participating in the upcoming Gwangju Biennale 2018, will display his widely-recognized series Sunday Paintings, in which he commits himself to a single painting of the sky every Sunday. Michael Joo, who will be showing new works this fall in the Real DMZ Project and the Art Sonje Project Space, will feature his Liminus painting series. The booth will also exhibit sechzehnterfebruarzweitausendundachtzehn (2018) by the Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone, Jean-Michel Othoniel’s glass bead sculpture Amant suspendu (2017), Julian Opie’s Joggers. 5. Coloured. (2015) and Sian walking. (2010), and a new work by Scandinavian artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset’s The Slowness of Us (2018).
Kukje Gallery is also very pleased to announce Park Chan-kyong’s participation in Code Art Fair’s film program Borderlands under PARKing CHANce, the anagrammatic collaboration he has formed with his brother and film director Park Chan-wook. In addition to screening his film, he will also show photographs in the gallery’s booth. PARKing CHANce will screen the duo’s short film Believe it or not (2018), inspired by a real-life double agent for South and North Korea and exploring the paradoxical relationship between the two nations. The film debuted earlier this year in the exhibition PARKing CHANce 2010-2018 at the Asia Culture Center in Gwangju. Along with Believe it or not, other works selected for Borderlands will screen from 5pm to 8pm on August 30, and on a two-hour loop from 10am to 8pm from August 31 through September 2.
