• September 12~20, 2009
• Ulsan Culture Art Center- 1st exhibition hall
• Curator : Song Sujong

Hidden Traces of The Present
Bachelard had once asked, “Would a bird build its nest if it did not have its instinct for confidence in the world?” Without confidence, an effort taking task as nest building will be impossible. Such instinctive confidence, desire for a safe nest is not much different for humans either. However it is not easy for a rational human being to maintain the instinctive confidence on the future. In a world like this, how is it possible to simply believe the life we have today will be the same tomorrow? As we are all well aware, the human race had the unfortunate history of destroying themselves and their lands instantly or gradually, and spending much time and effort in restoring it all.

Works introduced in <Eco-left> photographically examine such foolish history of humans and the present where everything is repeated with a beautiful backdrop. Through <Hidden> series, Paul Seawright captures the fear of war and violence contained in the ruins of the Afghanistan War. The scene he stands in is a place where war has already ceased, but from what is left the photographer reveals the still existing, soon to arrive ruins of the future.

Claudia Andujar witnessed how the Yanomamis lost their land and life due to destruction of Amazon’s rain forest in the 1970s, and has devoted all her life in protecting their roots and culture. In particular, <Sonhos Yanomami> was the turning point of her works, created when she fully understood the culture and tradition of these people. Through these works portraying the subconscious of Yanomamis, she is touching on the unseen world of their minds, even that of their ancestors.

There are many works in this exhibition that also question the line between nature and humans. By capturing minute traces humans left in nature, Anna Katharina Scheidegger inquires where the border of nature and human race is. On the other hand, Stephan Gill photographed London’s Hackney Wick area then buried and retrieved the result. By including the contingent chemical reaction created by moisture and light of underground as part of his work he is incorporating the spirits of earth into the photograph.

Exhibition title Eco-left was named meaning ‘ecology left to us’, but at the same time the title is indebted to the copyleft movement seeking common ownership of intellectual properties and information for everyone. Nevertheless, what human race should share is not limited to intellectual properties. Whether it be breathtaking landscapes captured by Michael Kenna or Joel Meyerowitz, or the ancient forest of Australia only left with the stumps in Hirano Masaki’s works, all of them are traces of mother nature left to us, and a slice of reality we have to embrace together.

There had been much help to make a collection of such high quality. It would not have been possible without the photographers and galleries who agreed to the aim of this exhibition and gladly sent their works to Ulsan, and many heartful thanks to Akinbode Akinbiyi, Christian Caujolle, Yoshiko Matsumoto, Arianna Rinaldo, Thomas Sauvin, Li Xiaotian, Han Sungpil and Heo Sooky for their big and essential help.

Curator I Song Sujong

• September 12~20, 2009
• Ulsan Culture Art Center- 2nd/4th exhibition hall
• Curator : Jin Dongsun

Era makes history, and protagonists of life make era. Those who survived history create the face of era we call ‘history’ through distinctive features of photographic media, and we call the result, documentation. History is the image of most acute events, the most controversial story of the era. Then what is the most acute event, the most controversial story of today? The answer is ecology. There is no other important issue.

The naturalism art is an aesthetic scrutiny and a visual expression on humans, nature, and the surrounding environment. In that sense, landscape photography had been staying within the fences of naturalistic aesthetics, and had long existed as a study and expression on nature. However, nature and landscape are different. Just as concept and meaning are two different words, naturalistic photographs and landscape photographs are not the same. While subject of landscape photography belongs to the configurative category, naturalistic photography is philosophy, a speculation of aesthetic concepts. Therefore naturalism is an ideology that overcomes subject and configuration, and the difference lies in clear spectacles of speculation, concept, and consistency.

24 photographers including Bae Bienu have persistently materialized naturalistic aesthetics in Korean photography circle, those who have embodied global issues on nature, environment and ecosystems of contemporary world with their works. Each of 52 photographs speculates and seeks the essence of nature in their own way, and see through environmental factors surrounding nature. Also, they are works that intend to seriously pursue naturalistic aesthetics, genuineness and methodology of its expressions, and have them sublimed in artistic and aesthetic ways.

Participating works can be largely divided into 5 categories. They can be sorted according to the spirits and essence of naturalism as well as by artistic, aesthetic levels : those that see relationship between humans and nature as a union, those that express the primitive essence of nature and absolute beauty of forms that follow the idea, those that assert today’s reality is the scenery of life created by history and time, and those that bring back the nature with mind and soul that has left our heart.

24 photographers who are participating in the exhibition cannot represent all of naturalistic photographs in the country. However, it is a sufficient opportunity to see at eye the density of Korean naturalistic photography, and how each photographer have accepted and reproduced this code of the era called naturalism. The exhibition will be a perfect chance to appreciate works on environment and nature that have become a major global concern of this era.

Curator I Jin Dongsun