It is dark outside the room and I use all my energy to come out of a deep sleep. A small cup of coffee waits for me on the table and I’m sitting on the couch forcing my mind to stay in focus. A school teacher comes to me and says “it’s all lost”. She no longer had control over the class.
That was a dream. An hour ago I was on Gyeongpo beach, South Korea that is for real.
Snow on Gyeongpo beach
Gyeongpo beach, it is the farthest east I have ever been. I stood on a cold sunlit beach covered in a layer of thin snow. The East sea waves crashed on the sand. At home in The Hague, we would stand on the beach and imagine our homemade kites flying east to Felixstowe. Here they would fly straight Niagara, Japan.
Hot from the press, the catalogue Pyeongchang Biennale 2017
At the preparations for the Pyeongchang Biennale 2017, my three paintings are up on display (I did it, job done) and I had time to loiter around and talk to the other artists. I spoke with Kiyoko SAKATA, Japan and Ori ELISAR, Israel and we talked about sea salt crystals through an electronic translator and a pencil and paper. Early in the morning, I met up with Micah GENSKE, USA and talked about his painting depicting large shadows on areal views. With Justyna ADAMCZYK , Poland, we talked about the status and social position of the artist in Poland. I talked to CHUANG Chih-Wei, Taiwan about my work and showed him the embroidered threads on the back of the painting. With CHEN Sai Hua Kuan, Singapore, we talked about the making of physical objects. Several times that day I went to have a look at Junya KATAOKA & Rie IWATAKE, Japan, as they set up their installation.
Junya KATAOKA & Rie IWATAKE, Japan, as they set up their installation
They show me the inside details of their work. Also Nils VOLKER, Germany takes me behind the scene of his kinetic artwork. With Thibault LAGET-RO, France, I talked about the fate of children in the French education system and with JAK, Korea / Germany, about the artists and studio spaces in Germany.
Pyeongchang Biennale 2017
In the evening I walked through the exhibition with the artistic director Seong-Youn Kim. It is a fantastic collection of works. He tells me he chose for the open call and that during the selection procedure he asked to omit the CVs of the artists, but wanted to judge on the images and artist’s statements alone. I gather that he made some people nervous, but they agreed that the results are outstanding. The exhibition is called The Five Moons : Return of the Nameless and Unknown.
Polygon art 