The art critic So-yeon Ahn was invited to conduct the 7th DOOSAN Curator’s Workshop seminar on October 22nd, 2016. The discussions for this seminar were based on the experiences of the art critic whose practice encompasses recent interviews of young artists born in 1980s, writing exhibition text, interpretation of art works, production of critical writings, as well as her experiences as review committee in independent spaces and organizations, and mentor for new artists. The three participants of the 2016 DOOSAN Curator’s Workshop are all born in 1980s, and are currently focusing on organizing exhibitions of artists in their age group. They shared feedbacks on the work attitude and methodology of young artists of the contemporary age, through Ahn’s critical outlook.
 
Changes in the work attitude and method of artists in contemporary times
In the main discussion topics of space-exhibition-criticism which gained significance in the last few years, the idea of space focused on new space, independent space, and open studio. Of particular note, the open studio seemed like an alternative space, and an expandable form and type of healthy network through which the curator and artists can collaborate. In the subject of exhibitions, the discussion mentioned noticeable emerging of events like GOODS, small-scale publication/printing, and white cube design exhibitions since 2015s. Here, we can explore the symptoms of post-internet, which can be seen in the narratives and works about generation theory. Artists commonly produced and deconstructed images based on visual experiences, and they focused on characteristics of nonlinear macronarrative or completely erased non-narrative within the massive interface. Based on the pretext of the artists being from the 880,000 won-generation, we can note the difference between this generation and the generation before them, in the sense that each artist deals with a different realm of space in which they can escape. Of the digital generation, they come out from the screen, and not only expand from the visual media environment, but also explore different domains.
Several artists born in 1980s were brought up in the discussion as examples. They looked into artists who start with the traditional identity or method of painting or sculpture, then convert it to the virtual world. A commonality among them would be that they do not consume a certain subject, but mere images in which the subject or matter has been vanished. As mentioned by Hito Steyerl, it’s as if we are endlessly groping for something in this void and black hole. Another commonality is that these artists explore the visual structure in which painting and sculpture is transposed into an image code, such as by studying the image and text circulating in internet and thoroughly researching it externally.
 
What does sculpture mean today?
The discussion went further to focusing on sculpture and exploring the art historical ideas on the contemporariness of sculpture. It began by discussing sculptures by Rodin who looked at forms as images and captured indefinite outlines and non-narratives. The participants of the workshop also discussed works by the futurist artist Bocchioni and constructivist Naum Gabo who strove to find the overall perception of the subject through machine aesthetics, as well as minimalism sculptures and works with theatrical traits and gestures that transpose the actual space, material and audience. While only the experience and process were important through the immaterial and informal at the time, the experience today differs in point, and demonstrates a strong element of collecting. As mentioned above, the artists seem to pour out the vanished images themselves, or remove the objecthood of the material. It seems that young artists today focus more on digitizing disassembled works into data rather than confronting things that exist. It’s an empty set of collective sensibility that is emotionally shared, and this offers universality of a different meaning.