Nothing is - everything just has been or will be

About

The Korean Cultural Centre UK(KCCUK) showcases its annual open call exhibition inviting six international artists selected by four jurors: Alessio Antoniolli (Director of Gasworks), Dr Sook-Kyung Lee (Senior Curator at Tate Modern), Li Zhenhua (Curator), Dr Siegfried Zielinski (Professor). For the first time ever, this year’s KCC Open Call was designed to travel across two major cities - the heart of contemporary art, London and Berlin, in order to expand the opportunity of these talented emerging artists. Entitled Nothing is - everything just has been or will be, the finalists of the 2021 KCC UK and Germany Open call creatively reflect on the notion of time and its fluidity.

The exhibition brings together various ideas and artistic expressions of winners, which interrogate the world where the definition of time has been blurred, and trace the shifting notion or value of time fueled by digitalisation and globalisation. Such ideas are particularly pertinent to this era of pandemic where our lives have been forced to online and physical movement has been restricted. Diverse in content and media, their works each embrace a unique creative practice such as visualisation of the passing of time, material manipulations, and profound research into historical dialogues.

• Participating Artists

Gala Bell (UK), Sarah Duffy (UK), Woojin Kim (KR), Hye Young Sin (KR), Yen Noh (KR), Jangwoo You (KR)

• 2021 KCC Open Call Jurors

Alessio Antoniolli is the Director of Gasworks, where he leads a programme of exhibitions, international residencies and participatory events. He is also the Director of Triangle Network, a world-wide network of visual art organisations that work together to create artists’ exchanges and to share knowledge with each other. He has lectured widely and has been part of many juries including the UK’s Turner Prize in 2019.

Dr Sook-Kyung Lee works on exhibitions, acquisitions and collection displays at Tate Modern as Senior Curator, International art, and heads a major research initiative Hyundai Tate Research Centre: Transnational. Lee curated Nam June Paik at Tate Modern in 2019 with Rudolf Frieling. She has also curated collection exhibitions and displays at Tate Modern, such as A Year in Art: Australia 1992 (2021-22), CAMP: From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf (2019-20) and Xiao Lu and Niki de Saint Phalle(2018-19). She served as the Commissioner and Curator of the Korean Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale (2015)

Li Zhenhua is currently working in Zurich, Berlin and Hong Kong, Active in contemporary art since 1996. he is currently the Curator of FILM at Art Basel in Hong Kong (since 2014). Li was the International Consultant of the Barbican International Exhibition "Digital Revolution”(2014), UK and has served as a final jury member for many national and international organizations, including: Transmediale (2010), CCAA (*now as M+ Art Museum Sigg Prize 2012), Fantoche Animation Festival (2012), Hyundai Blue Prize (2018), etc.

Dr Siegfried Zielinski is Michel Foucault Professor of Media Archaeology & Techno-Culture at the European Graduate School (CH), honorary doctor and professor of the Budapest University of Arts, and Professor emeritus of media theory at Berlin University of the Arts. He was founding rector (1994–2000) of the Academy of Media Arts Cologne, director of the Vilém Flusser Archive (1998-2016) and rector of the Karlsruhe University of Arts & Design (2016-2018). Zielinski is member of the Berlin Academy of Arts and the North-Rhine-Westfalia Academy of Sciences & Arts.