Hybrid Baton: Atypical Feast: Kwon JungMo, Kim Beom, Kim JiEun, Park HyeSoo, Oh YouKyeong, Ju SeKyun, Choi Sun, Ham Jin, Hoh WooJung, Hong JangOh, Hwang HakSam

Gallery Baton is pleased to announce Hybrid Baton: Atypical Feast, a group exhibition of works by 11 Korean artists—Kwon JungMo, Kim Beom, Kim JiEun, Park HyeSoo, Oh YouKyeong, Ju SeKyun, Choi Sun, Ham Jin, Hoh WooJung, Hong JangOh, Hwang HakSam—from 24th February to 26th March 2022 in Hannam-dong, Seoul.

The exhibition, When Attitudes Become Form (1969), curated by Harald Szeemann (1933-2005), one of the pioneers in contemporary curating, went down in history even after half a century due to its groundbreaking curatorial approach and the participating artists’ outstanding achievements.  

Its subtitle, "Works-Concepts-Processes-Situations-Information" attentively revealed the exhibition’s tendency. The exhibition embraced process-oriented art in material/immaterial shapes going against conventions and its boundless possibilities which could be considered a new form. Rather than displaying ‘art’ as a refined result, it showed how successfully the process of creating and artists’ attitude throughout it turned out art itself.

In Szeemann’s proposal for the exhibition written in 1969 as a director of the Kunsthalle Bern, it is not difficult to find remains that he spent plenty of time to come up with the title which properly reflected the experimental and pluralistic new trend led by emerging American artists based on West Coast. The works as attempts to break from the stereotypical figures and an entity of personal or emotional manifestations were fairly treated as an “observed phenomenon” in this exhibition instead of being another art trend; hence, they gained the title they deserved that remains now as a legend.  

The obsession with ‘Grouping’ can be one of the biggest obstructions of curating a group exhibition. In the current SNS-dominant era, the prevailing dogma of "the greatest number of understandings and favors," the temptation for a coherence ambience encompassing the entire exhibition increases. But, it also has an ironic relation with “contemporary”, since a monolithic composition of an exhibition and works with a similar context make a subtle and authentic voice of each artist difficult to stand out. In this respect, Szeemann’s claim is such a supporting manifesto for the later generation of curators who stand between a desire for more innovative challenges and a compromise with conventions.  

As the subtitle "Hybrid Baton" suggests, this exhibition is a selection of works by artists who attended multiple projects in the past, which were co-curated with Gallery Baton in Chapter II.  “Atypical Feast” plainly represents the artists’ intentions contained in each work. The outcomes of consistent investigations into 'forms' and 'materials' that correspond to the artist’s original motive do not force the viewers to expect to be instantly inspired and convinced. At the same time, they provide a rare opportunity to reflect upon the chronological sequences of contemporary art history and its course of division under the current circumstance where the formative two-dimensional paintings lead the art scene. As the fragments of appreciation can neither be described in a limited language nor explained to others, the works are embodied in the most befitting formats that the artists can think of. By denying to deliver a direct message, these “atypical works” encourage the audience to spontaneously approach and stay around them.

Thus, the most advised stance of appreciating the exhibition is following the significant recommendation given by Szeemann half a century ago. “LIVE IN YOUR HEAD.”

** All the artists who have participated in exhibition programs at Chapter II, Chapter II members and U.PINE MED Inc. that has consistently provided the utmost support on the Mecenat principles made the exhibition possible. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to their contribution.