Art Sonje

ART ATTACK. A short documentary

SHORT SYNOPSIS

The Demilitarised Zone, in short DMZ, is a buffer zone between North and South Korea where only soldiers patrol. Within spitting distance of this military hotspot each year a range of international artists take part in a residency programme in a small South Korean village called Yangjiri. Each year their artistic practices culminates in an exhibition in and around the village. The outcome of this festival-like event and the relations between the artists and the villagers, range somewhere between documentary and fiction. Not only is communication difficult, but there is also a clash of cultures and values. A small village at the border to North Korea is turned upside down for the sake of what could be understood as pretentious art. What we see is a certain surreality, perhaps even in keeping with the character of the DMZ, which has divided North and South Korea for 65 years.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

ART ATTACK is a short documentary shot in a small Korean village called Yangji-ri located just south of the border with North Korea. Every year the Seoul based gallery Art Sonje hosts a contemporary art festival in this very rural area and the public are carried on buses into and out of Yangji-ri. Since the gallery also runs an artist residency programme in Yangji-ri, the participating artists are invited to stay there for their art practices prior to the festival.

During the production of ART ATTACK I spent a couple of days in Yangji-ri prior to and during the festival. The Goethe Institut Korea, which has been one of the sponsors of the festival kindly invited me to deliver my vision of this unique event. For me the most interesting thing about this event is not so much connected to the work of the artists, it is rather the ‘behind the scenes’ related events, where we really see how two different culture and a very different understanding of what art is. Since the villagers voices are not really heard, the audience is left with a sense of art colonialism. It is my belief that in this sense the culture industry, like any other, is marketing its products, the artist and curators, on the international stage.

I hope that ART ATTACK allows us to reflect on an international art circuit, which often comes across as pretentious. Furthermore the film illustrates how interpersonal relationships are often exploited for one’s personal success. I am well aware that my insight into the relationships between the artists and villagers has been very limited, since I only got to spent 6 days in Yangjiri to shoot the film. But while I was filming the documentary, I did not have a lot of preconception nor a fixed approach or storyline in my head. I tried to immerse myself into the situation without being to judgmental nor taking sides with either the artists or the villagers. The story, as it is, was mainly contextualised in the edit. Here it made sense to juxtapose the artists with the villagers in order to contrast their views and opinions. The resulting film is a critical position on a globalised art world and it’s confrontation with a tiny village in Korea close to the Demilitarised Zone. A small corner of the world where people are probably not too concerned about art.

Despite the sometimes heavy subject matter that touch on the Demilitarised Zone, art colonialism and difficult interpersonal relationships, I understand ART ATTACK merely as a comedic film. I had a lot of fun reviewing the footage during the editing process and some parts made me laugh out loud. To highlight humorous elements in the film, I basically had to divide and then lump together what can be summed up as the art world on the one hand, and the world of the villagers on the other. I hope that based on this editorial generalisation none of the artists or villages in this film feel any of their personal rights are being violated and that they also look at this as a comedic film.

Thank you very much for your interest in this film!