Although we are living in a world that is replete with information stemmed from digital media and the development of technology, people are becoming unaware of the sense of the absolute truth. The absolute truth is not something you can simply choose from either A or B, but is rather ‘A above B’. It cannot be interpreted and defined by one’s own intention in this way and that. However, embracing theories such as relativism, pluralism, individualism, the world is missing out on the absolute truth.

Humans tend to observe any object in association with themselves immediately after they perceive the object from their surrounding environment. This is actually very common behavior because the whole fate of humans is determined by whether the objects we observe are satisfactory, intriguing, or useful. These familiar methods of observing and judging objects seem to be simple as if it is only natural. Humans are, however, exposed to fallible conditions when using these methods, and the resulting errors often render them ashamed and their lives miserable. (Goethe, Theory of Colors, Minumsa, p. 313)

First, I would like to throw a question to people who consider ‘art’ to be a simple aesthetic object. To you, what distinguishes artworks from products? Now, I would like to ask people who regard art only to be a conception of spontaneous and creative thinking, what do you wish to obtain from art? And finally, to art collectors, for what reasons do you collect artworks?

The message conveyed in artworks focuses on the reality with narrow beams of light in the same way that ‘light shines in the darkness’. For the people who sense the subtle beam of light, they ponder about the resonance of art and its message. I am of the opinion that art must endlessly scream for the absolute truth. The value of art can be recognized when it causes resonance beyond merely coexisting in our lives, and that is the privilege that art has.

Project 7 1/2

The 7½ Project started with a theoretical question, “What is art?”. The reason for throwing such a fundamental question through Project 7 1/2 is not to find the answer, but to ruminate on what we are missing out on in aiming to absorb art in the life of every one of us. We are already aware that the reality we live in is more powerful than the logic inherent in artworks or the form of artworks that appears as materiality. Is this the reason that not only why the boundary between art and non-art has become vague, but also, as that the ‘idea of artists’ in our minds fades, and distinguishing them is becoming more difficult? People regard being an artist as easy, and that may be true. However, it is rare to find a real artist. I am against the attitude of considering art as something that can be enjoyed only by certain classes. Yet I cannot deny that I am uncomfortable with the boundary of art and non-art becoming vague. Furthermore, I am skeptical about how the value of art is created and determined by the logic of capitalism. Thus, I would like to explore the boundary between art and non-art, and the position and function of art within the local community and society as a whole through this project. And I consider how art is positioned and flowing in our lives, and at the same time, consider the vanishing of art.

We sometimes encounter a new world through artworks. This experience is a purely artistic one, and it can happen in a predetermined condition. The state of this sensation, which is not captured in language, appears like a flash of light when it faces us as some artistic form in an unfamiliar space. However, the pure joyfulness of discovering the sense always becomes damaged by an established discourse or the logic of market value. In other words, we lose the approaching senses as soon as we place and interpret art principally in the realm of knowledge and the system. So, it sometimes makes me ponder whether we are missing out on the pure artistic sense, and how we can awaken and recover the senses. In this process, I have gradually arrived at the fundamental question, “What is art?”, and Project 7 1/2 originated from this question. Project 7 1/2 focuses on the ‘sense’ emerging from artworks, especially on the ‘matter of perspective’ of the artistic experience that can be obtained sensuously. I attempted to criticize the existing viewpoint on the relationship between me and the other from a sociological approach, on the gap between art and non-art, and to cause a ‘shift in the viewpoint’ through the pushing of a new viewpoint, rather than to draw an artistic interpretation. That means I am interested in artworks that create various viewpoints that can come before the stage of perception, or the sense of an artistic perception stage and the stage of intuition. Also, I would like to explore how the senses spread and in what form they coexist within the capitalist society or the system of art. Namely, Project 7 1/2 aims to integrate the subtle ‘senses’ that arise from artworks while at the same time search for and suggest various viewpoints that are possible in the course of experiencing art. Furthermore, the viewpoint will be able to appear as a sense through the experimental combination of art that will not be easily consumed by discourses and knowledge.

Project 7 1/2: Selecting the participating artists, artworks, and the venue

For over ten years, I have been working with well-known artists who are at the center of the art world both domestically and internationally. I have had experiences with great artists that are incredibly impressive and those that are not. I often find myself brooding over the incomprehensible situation where I find ironies that occur in different circumstances from aiming for art in the structure of the art world and further within the society we live in. This process is still being repeated, and it inevitably leads me to return to the starting point over and over again and ask “what on earth is art?”. I have thought about this situation repeated for generations without improvement, and therefore, decided to explore it by throwing the theoretical question through Project 7 1/2. I wanted to begin Project 7 1/2 with the unfamiliar artists of different genres I have not experienced, rather than well-known artists working at the center of the art world. Also, I arranged a lecture by Kim Namsoo on the subject of ‘Art and Unconsciousness’ to naturally form a network among the artists. In accordance with the objective, I naturally made acquaintances with some artists, which enabled me to learn about their interests and works at the lecture. They were all newly acquainted artists at the lecture, and by talking with them, I was able to discover their common interests. Through this process, I selected the participating artists for the years of 2014 and 2015. They were: Kim Taeuk, Kim Sookhyeon, Bae Seoyeong, Lee Jiyeon, Jang Hongseok, Kang Jinan, Kim Seungrok, Ryu Seongguk, Kang Malgeum, Lee Hyunsoo, Lee Rokhyeon, Hong Sanghyun, Ha Sangcheol). In 2016, on the other hand, the subject was ‘Cryptographic Imagination’ in which I tried to explore the gap between art and non-art. The selection of a suitable venue for the project was critical, and, after much consideration, the project took place in Mullae-dong in 2015 and in Jangsa-dong, Jongno 3(sam)-ga in 2016. It was imperative that I selected the right artists for the theme and venue of the next exhibition. So, the 7½ of 2016: Cryptographic Imagination was composed of exhibitions by Bae Seoyeong, Lee Hyunji, the late Sung Chankyung+Sung Kiwan, Genevieve Chua, Sulki & Min, and Choi Sunah. Project 7 1/2 is the form of the integration of artists that is expectable of an expanded feature by eliminating the standard of genre and sharing the methodologies, with a focus placed on planning. Since the works of all the artists participating in Project 7 1/2 had to be newly created in accordance with the planning objectives, the venue, and the theme, how the works proposed by the artists are fully realized could only be revealed after the final displaying of the works, and the subtle sensations derived from them was also of great interest to both the curators and the artists. For three years between 2014 and 2016, Project 7 1/2 took place in a space that was either empty or not in use. The venues for the exhibitions did not play the role as a gallery of the white cube, but as an object that allowed the artworks to function. For the first time in 2014, the lecture and research project were carried out by traveling around places whose primary aim was to embrace art without ever revealing its clear identity. In 2015, I selected the Mullae-dong area that was concentrated by the workshops of many artists and activated with municipal-controlled urban regeneration. Following that in 2016, I selected Jangsa-dong. Both Mullae-dong and Jangsa-dong succeeded in bringing about the industrialization of Korea in the 1960s and 1970s. However, both regions are now underdeveloped urban areas, unable to fulfill their previous functions and still awaiting redevelopment. Nevertheless, Mullae-dong is still showing the arduous acts of physical labor, while Jangsa-dong has the spatial characteristic for distributing and selling manufactured products. Project 7 1/2 chose Mullae-dong as a venue to explore the relationship between me and the other in sociological terms and chose Jangsa-dong to explore the differences between artworks and products, namely, between art and non-art. Project 7 1/2 is loosely unfolded and connected within a given space and time, which may be the main characteristic of Project 7 1/2.

When considering sensing artworks before expressing them in language, I think of all forms of discourse including philosophy as an attempt to limit any events to the framework of language and to alter the infinity of the events (infinity of encountering and of relationship). Due to the fact that rational thinking affects consciousness, I often experience inconvenience where I feel conflict with what I sensed through language and the works. Therefore, I attempt to never read the interpretation about work before I actually view see it. I maintain my distance from the text in order to retain what I sensed from seeing artworks as long as possible, but on the very rare occasions when I encounter a very great work, the infinity of the relationship inherent in the work sometimes shifts the viewpoint and broadens the understanding by breaking the stereotypes or going beyond the existing viewpoint. Of course, this is a subjective view. So, I wanted to explore the act of sensing art before expressing it in language, in other words, to explore the gap between art and non-art though Project 7 1/2, and this was presented as the first condition to those who viewed this project. For this reason, I did not place any explanatory texts in the exhibiting space. (There were audiences who expressed their inconvenience about this condition. I found an interesting point by listening to their stories that the more people learn and experience art the more they wanted to read the intention of the artist and the meaning of the work. So, I explained it to them verbally. They tended to be unfamiliar with sensing by themselves and expressing themselves in language, with no real will to look at the works and think about them, and instead, they thought that there should be given answers to the works.) To provide the basic information about this project, I only used websites or SNSs for the simplest possible explanation and made sure it was not in the exhibiting space. This material package or the catalogue exists only for archival purposes.

Being in-between ‘Something’ and ‘Something’, 7½

‘7½’ that refers to being ‘in-between’ two things were derived from Floor 7½ in between the 7th and 8th floors of the movie “Being John Malkovich (1999)”. Like Floor 7½ in the movie, through which viewers can experience what John Malkovich sees, feels and does inside his head, and similar to the rabbit hole of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland written by Lewis Carroll, I chose 7½ as the title of this project in thinking that we should go deep into the rabbit hole to experience art (the other). The 7½ Project that talks about what we did not perceive and miss out on when aiming for art, such as the relationships of art and the unconsciousness, art and non-art, and of the other and me, explores and records all emerging processes by entering into our lives and reality.

Introducing Project 7 1/2

In this way, Project 7 1/2 has the belief that a new horizon of viewing the world will be opened when we ask the question of “what is art?” and at the same time acquire the appropriate viewpoint on an object or an event. The genres of art have their own viewpoints, as all areas do. And we expect the various viewpoints to open up a horizon of the third possibility through unexpected encounters, conflicts, and harmony. Now, with the development of media and communication technology, global communication and the exchange of human consciousness and sense have become possible in our daily lives. So, it feels like the human capability to judge what we feel is becoming lost. Also, the development of media and communication technology has made the boundary between art and non-art vague. We can see it as to how the reality itself became the wonderland, but art is hesitating at the entrance to the wonderland. Let us set up a situation where art is the ‘wonderland’ and the audience is ‘Alice in Wonderland’. It has its own logic in the ‘wonderland (art)’, and ‘Alice (audience)’ is ruled by the logic of people living in the wonderland. Alice does not understand the logic of the wonderland, and cannot predict people’s behavior in the wonderland. This is similar to experiencing an unpredictable dictatorship from Alice’s perspective. Alice must follow their rules in the wonderland. Rather than suffering as a ruled subject, Alice may enjoy a fantastic adventure, or may not, in the wonderland. If she does, it is because Alice is trying to understand the point of view of the characters in the wonderland, and is searching for joyful elements in the process. We consider Alice to be a cheerful, adventurous, challenging or progressive and ideal heroine in the wonderland who adapts to the situation of the wonderland. In other words, I understood that it is because Alice discovers amusement in the wonderland while at the same time she obeys its rules, which is why I sought to create a circumstance through the 7½ Project where doing that is possible. Also, I understood the situation where obedience to the rule and amusement occur simultaneously as a type of play and applied this concept of the ‘play’ to Project 7 1/2. In the play of Project 7 1/2, the stories of contemporary, social, and cultural backgrounds are delicately reflected in the works of participating artists. Let us imagine for a moment that all the events in reality that are happening around me are just a part of a play. If the project is a play involving two or three people, then the audience becomes a participant in the play regardless of their will, as soon as they enter upon the venue for Project 7 1/2. There will be the need to immediately focus on the process of seeing, hearing, and feeling, namely, on the process in which the sensation perceived by your body awakens the other senses at the venue of this project, and this is how the play works. Project 7 1/2 that has been held for three years from 2014 to 2016 is linked to the story of a journey of exploration rather than to individual exhibitions or performances, and the subtle sensuous stories are revealed as results of various research.