Kyuchul Ahn b.1959

EDUCATION:

Staatliche Akademie der Bildende Kunste Stuttgart, Germany; B.F.A. in Sculpture, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS:

SOLO - 2004 Rodin Gallery, Seoul , South Korea ; Art Sonje Museum , Gyeongju , South Korea

GROUP - 2006 Seoul Forest Park Open Air Sculpture Symposium , Seoul, South Korea; Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial , NiIgata, Japan ; 2005 Nine One Man Show , Gana Art Center, Seoul, South Korea; Cool & Warm , Sungkok Art Museum, Seoul, South Korea; Parallel Life , Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, Germany; 2004 Alchemy of Daily Life , The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, South Korea ; Absolutely Landscape , Sungkok Art Museum, Seoul, South Korea; 2003 Crossings 2003 , University of Hawaii Art Gallery, Honolulu, Hawaii; Beauty , Sungkok Art Museum, Seoul, South Korea; 2002 The 4 th Gwangju Biennale 2002, Project 4: Connection, Gwangju, South Korea; 2000 Design or Art , Design Museum, Seoul, South Korea; Busan International Contemporary Art Festival, Busan Metropolitan Art Museum, Busan, South Korea

Although Korea as a sovereign country was said to have been founded five thousand years ago, it is, in a sense, a young country, having just underwent a modernizing process. This, coupled with the population whose eyes were focused on development and future economic prosperity, resulted in an unfortunate phenomena - that of ignorance of contemporary history. It is not only ignorance, but also lack of investing value towards anything of recent past. What this meant in real terms is that one saw continuous rapid cycle of build - demolition - rebuild, with a single-minded focus on a so-called better tomorrow. This resulted in an almost forgotten recent-history, that of '60s, '70s. Unlike in the West, there is no sense of strong nostalgia for this period, and it is almost impossible to find traces of this period in most Korean cities, be it buildings or cultural history. Like Jeong-Hwa Choi, it is this effaced period that drives Kyu-Chul Ahn's work.

All the doors of 'Abandoned doors (2004)' are actual doors from that period. They are in fact, the only remains of domiciles where these doors came from. This house was originally built in the newly constructed artist village HAIRI near DMZ area in Korea , where newly commissioned architectural works were built. Ahn Kyuchul built his house there as a critique to the other houses which reflected rapidly changing trends in architecture and construction.

Abandoned Doors, 2006 , Door installation

Abandoned Doors, 2006 , Door installation (Interior)