Private Song I
2020
Installation view
Participating artists: Valerian Goalec, Ana Wild, Alexia Laferte Coutu, Eduardo Leon (avoidstreet), RYU Biho, Jinseung Jang, Jaehee Jung, James Clarkson
Co-curators: Jinkyung Kim, Sonia Kazovsky, Aaron McLaughlin, Seojin Yim, Gayoung Jang
Participating researchers: Joo-ok Kim, Manique Hendricks, Sofia Dourron, Cameron MacLeod, Sukyung Hwang
Tuesday-Friday 10:30~20:00 / Weekend and National holiday 10:30~19:00 / Closed on Monday
DOOSAN Gallery Seoul: 15, Jongno 33-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul, Korea
Tel. 02-708-5050
DOOSAN Gallery Seoul presents Private Song I, an exhibition organized by Honggyun Mok the winner of Curatorial Open Call, from July 22nd to August 19th, 2020. DOOSAN Gallery has supported three new curators every year through DOOSAN Curator Workshop Program since 2011. In order to expand the support for curators, DOOSAN Gallery has been selecting one curator through a biennial open call to offer a site through which they can implement their ideas in deeper and more diverse ways since 2018.
Private Song I was inspired by the scandalous incidents that took place in Venice Biennale and Documenta 14 in 2017, where two artistic directors in each of the events included their partners in the programs and exhibitions. Their actions caused quite a stir in the public as to how their deeds should be read, and Mok began to contemplate on the ways of refraining from personal relationships of the curator intervening in the exhibition.
This exhibition focuses on the process and method involved in the curator selecting the artists. Mok selected the 8 artists and 5 co-curators for this exhibition while eliminating her own intervention in the selection process as much as possible. First, 3 artists were selected through Curatron(curatroneq.com) program utilizing the algorithm’s deep learning, and second, the 2 co-curators were selected in the same manner as the artists. Third, additional 3 co-curators were selected through a blind open call held through DOOSAN gallery’s website and SNS. The 5 selected co-curators conducted their own research of the artists and shared their data, through which the other 5 artists were selected.
The method of artist selection in this exhibition may seem to just simply illustrate how the function of algorithm has replaced the role of the curator in an exhibition. However, Mok’s efforts to refrain from intervening in the selection process of artists ultimately directed at an element of radical transparency and openness in the screening process, and visually demonstrated how the issues surrounding the artist selection process affected the overall project.
Meanwhile, the processes and researches that were conducted and shared among the participating artists, co-curators and researchers will be on view through Sound Cloud and YouTube channel throughout the exhibition period.