The Agreed-Kidnapping-Play

10.16, 10:00am — 10.23, 6:00pm
Seosomun 3rd Floor (map)

In cooperation with 2016 Korea Art Week

Minwook An

b. 1982. Lives and works in Osan.?
It was in his undergraduate years as a prints major that Minwook An went from painting because it was required of him to discovering a true passion for Art as an inseparable part of his life. That transition was brought about in 2008 when he had a chance to meet the residents of Bugahyeondong in Seoul, a neighborhood which was to be demolished for property redevelopment. The encounters with the locals prompted him to look back on his own life, leading him to come face to face with his anxiety over the uncertainties of the occupation of the artist. He thought hard about what role an artist can play in the city, and established “ars,” a virtual company concerned with contemporary art and artist and the role they can play in the present sociocultural context. Later he moved to the UK where he enrolled in an M.A. program to study art and stage design. There he was able to continue his experiments involving a variety of small-scale projects in the local community and in the art school. Upon his return to Korea in 2014, he joined the Misulin Yeongnongdan, which means “The Farming Artists Group” and began to farm. In the summer of that same year, he opened The Offce of Useless Art in the Nanji Camping Park as a temporary project aimed at distinguishing himself from the company ars, which had come to be identified with him, and reasserting his identity as an artist in his own right. He has since persisted in an effort to survive and stay active as an artist in the local community and in the art scenes. Major projects carried out by the company ars include:?A Project That Makes One Look Like an Artist, 2008;?The Office of Useless Art, 2014;?ars Caf?, 2012, 2014; and?ars-Pacific Romantic Factory, 2015. An’s projects as an individual artist include?Plan B Stage, 2014; and?For a While, the Way into Darkness, 2015.

Kyuho Song,?Daewoong Ahn,?Chang Jang, Jin Huiung

Throughout his community projects which often require people’s active engagement, Minwook An has inquired into what constitutes an ideal audience or ideal participants. He states that there are numerous art events and educational programs outside of Seoul, but little participating audience. Sometimes he even thinks of kidnapping people from other places where more people are willing to engage with such projects. He participated as a panel member of the pre-Mediacity 2016 program “Meeting on Community Art: the exhaustion (regeneration) of public art.” An, reflecting this program, reconsidered what he realized during the meeting and produced The Agreed-Kidnapping-Play as a platform upon which he could raise questions for the audience and share the experience with them.
*All performances will be in Korean.
*Specific destinations and activities are not revealed, as part of the performance.

First Performance, The First Challenge : The Untitled Kidnapping-Play
Date:10.16, 11:00 am - 6:00 pm

"Every time I work on my piece I hope that people would like it. At the same time, I feel pathetic about how meaningless it is to work on something that has no audience."

Second Performance, Endless Wandering : A Most Uncertain Kidnapping-Play
Date:10.18, 11:00 am - 6:00 pm

"There is no rehearsal. Thus place and situation are all uncertain. Even after a row of agreements an unseen force may transform the hostages into prized guests or plunge them into a miserable state."

Third Performance, Escape Artificial Hell : The Artificial Ride to Hell Kidnapping-Play
Date:10.22, 11:00 am - 6:00 pm

"This Kidnapping-Play transgresses beyond space and time and aims to transform the audience into lively participants."

Fourth Performance, At The End of Kidnapping-Play : Coffee, Photographs and Kidnapping-Play
Date:10.23,11:00 am - 6:00 pm

"The art organizations I participated in closed or changed their names as they took me in or sent me out. Most of them don't exist anymore. Anyways, after the place I worked shut down and 2 years after I became a no-income artist from being a jobless person, I just opened a space, since, this is my stock-in-trade."

Instructions for Participation
To become a participant of The Agreed -Kidnapping- Play, come to the ticket booth of The Agreed-Kidnapping-Play between 10am and 12pm, located at third floor of SeMA (Seosomun) and sign up for the performance. Participants will be kidnapped and moved to the bus stop where afterwards they will move to each day's destination.
*Specific destinations and activities are not revealed, as part of the performance.
*Fort the performance, participants will be given eye patches to wear before they get on the bus. The eye patches will be removed after the bus starts moving, please be aware that the bus will have the windows covered as part of the performance.

Contact: Mediacity Seoul 2016 (+82-10-2124-8977, register@mediacityseoul.kr)
Organized by: Arts Council Korea, SeMA