Photographic Visions – Victor BurginᆞLewis BaltzᆞGeorges RousseᆞBoomoon
- Date: 28 April - 30 June 2017
- Curated by Kim Art Lab
WAP Art Space is pleased to launch its galleries with 'Photographic Visions'. The exhibition will be held on the first and basement levels of the brand-new WAP Foundation building, designed by the Swiss architect Davide Macullo.
In line with the simultaneous construction of the building and the constitution of the art collection, the exhibition focusses on the concept of space. Photographic Visions thus shows major works by four artists whose practices foster a “sense of place”, and form the core of the WAP Foundation art collection: Victor Burgin (b.1940), Lewis Baltz (1945-2014), Georges Rousse (b.1947) and Boomoon (b.1955). The works on display will act as “windows” and “mirrors” within the newly built gallery space, evoking “there” while also establishing “here”.
These four artists are extraordinary figures in the field of contemporary photography. Although each one of them has been acknowledged as a distinguished contributor to the very much discussed topic of “photography as contemporary art”, common grounds between them are not so obvious. They all lived in Paris for a certain period of time, and they worked sometimes with the same galleries, yet they have never been exhibited together. More significantly, they share similar life attitudes, as they all chose to live away from their home ground.
British artist Victor Burgin studied in the US, and currently lives in a remote countryside of France. Lewis Baltz, born in California, was critical towards American capitalism and decided to live in Paris as he believed Europe had a higher sense of public interest. Parisian Georges Rousse continuously travels to set up his ‘mobile studio’ in the places he explores, while Korean photographer Boomoon left Seoul and moved to Mountain Seorak’s vicinity where he has been honing his own world.
Although the notion of distance is essential to any photographic practice, the artists in this exhibition consider it specifically as a method for acknowledging the world in front of them. Their photographs are far from the aesthetics of the decisive moment and of chance; they are rather based on a reflection on the photographic medium, on the analysis and understanding of objects, and they result their work from elaborate working processes. This exhibition therefore aims at bringing to the fore these photographic visions that deliver the presence of the photographic image. Simultaneously, these attitudes and visions will be cornerstones for the WAP Art Space.
Eighty-one pieces in this exhibition include significant works of contemporary art history: 'Office at Night' (1986) by Victor Burgin and '89-91 Sites of Technology' (1989-1991) by Lewis Baltz. These critically acclaimed works are brought together with new pieces by Georges Rousse, commissioned by the WAP Art Space ('Cheongdam Project', 2013-2016), and with Boomoon’s 10 meter-long monumental landscape. All of these works are presented in Korea for the first time.
The exhibition catalogue will be published with essays by Victor Burgin, Georges Rousse, Alistair Hicks, Christophe Schaden and Kim Airyung.