Koki Tanaka’s work has long been asking and probing the question of how to live together with differences. As part of our current exhibition ‘Practise Till We Meet’, curated by Hanlu Zhang, Tanaka’s work Vulnerable Histories (A Road Movie) (2018) looks into historical and contemporary ramifications of discrimination against the Korean diaspora in Japan (Zainichi Koreans), and invites the viewers to consider how we might take steps towards a more just and equitable future.
Convened by esea contemporary’s Director Xiaowen Zhu, this talk will reflect on Tanaka’s artistic practices, notions of co-existing, and intergenerational communications.
The event will feature an artist talk by Koki Tanaka, followed by a conversation with guest speakers Haeju Kim, Senior Curator at Singapore Art Museum, and Dr. Vicki Sung-yeon Kwon, Associate Curator of Korean Art and Culture at Royal Ontario Museum (ROM). There will also be opportunities to ask questions to the panel.
.jpg)
Koki Tanaka’s practice spans video, photography, installations, and interventions in which he renders visible the multiple contexts intrinsic to everyday acts. In his earlier works, Tanaka experimented with ordinary objects to explore possible diversions from daily routines. In his more recent work, Tanaka asks participants to collectively navigate tasks that are in and of themselves out of the ordinary. He documents behaviours that people unconsciously exhibit when facing unusual situations, exploring group dynamics in a micro-society and transitory community. His works have been exhibited internationally, including at the Migros Museum, Zurich (2018); Kunsthaus Graz (2017); Skulptur Projekte Münster (2017); the 57th Venice Biennale (2017); the Liverpool Biennial (2016); VanAbbe Museum, Eindhoven (2014); the 55th Venice Biennale (2013); and at the Gwangju Biennial (2008). He received a special mention for his national participation at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013, and was Deutsche Bank's "Artist of the Year" in 2015.
Haeju Kim currently works as a senior curator at Singapore Art Museum. She was the artistic director of the Busan Biennale 2022, and deputy director of Art Sonje Center (2017-2021)
At Art Sonje Center, Haeju curated Koki Tanaka's solo exhibition Vulnerable Histories(A Road Movie) in 2020.
Dr. Vicki Sung-yeon Kwon is an Associate Curator of Korean Art and Culture at Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), where she oversees Canada’s largest collection of Korean art and cultural heritage. Dr. Kwon has taught the arts of Korea, twentieth-century art in East Asia, and art as social practice in the Department of Art and Design at the University of Alberta, where she received her PhD degree in History of Art, Design, and Visual Culture. Her doctoral research was funded by the Doctoral Fellowship of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Prior to joining the ROM, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Kyujanggak Institute for Korean Studies, at Seoul National University, and a researcher of Changdong Residency at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Korea. As curator, project manager, and researcher, she has coordinated multidisciplinary exhibitions held in Canada, Norway, South Korea, and Switzerland. Kwon published her research in peer-reviewed journals Korean Studies, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, Asian Studies Review, and Imaginations: Journal of Cross-Cultural Image Studies.
%2C%202018.%20Production%20still.%20Courtesy%20the%20artist..jpg)