One of them is related to some fascinating aspects of language and to the intriguing ‘Taxidermy For Language-Animals' by Tine Melzer. It not only reminded Minsook of her father, who is also an amateur gardener, but she also was surprised to notice that, though it was written already a century ago, it still sounds very witty.Īt the moment Minsook is working on several projects. Another is 'The Gardener's Year', a funny book by the Czech writer and political activist Karel Capek. This subtlety, the care that underlies much of her ‘micro-political gestures' is also found in two other books that have inspired her: ‘More-than-Human', a magnificent book on the state of post- anthropocentric thinking, that proposes reparative attention across species and beings. There is no condemnation of the people throwing out the trees: Minsook just picks them up and cherishes them, while hardly anyone knows about her doing this. "But here is no judgement underlying these actions", Elsbeth remarked. The guests noted that, though Minsook doesn't want to be called an activist artist, in fact she is. She doesn't want to call her work socially engaged or activist, but rather it is meant to be a poetic gesture, a subtle form of resistance.
Her interest in art as a communicative, participatory project, also brought her to dive into the ‘happening' and of course Allan Kaprow's ‘Essays on the Blurring of Art and Life'.įor Minsook, making publications to share her 'actions' is a way to bridge the gap between life and art. ‘Dewey for Artists' has been very important to Minsook, judging its countless memo stickers and underlines. Her wish to express attention to what is underestimated, made her read ‘Facing Value', the Stroom publication that aims to rethink our economic value system, and John Dewey, the philosopher who stressed the importance of ‘Art as Experience'. Minsook gives attention to the disgarded, highlights them by just listening, a conversation, replanting and soothing. Here she observes, and wonders with an emphatic eye for the unobtrusive.
This naturally sparked her interest into the complete different culture. In 2015 Minsook left Korea, went to Denmark and now she lives in the Netherlands. Important examples have been artists like Hsieh Tehching, stanley brouwn, Seth Siegelaub and Bas Jan Ader. She became interested in artists who have stopped making art, or who have tried to bring life and art together. She became aware of the paradoxical phenomenon in art that it seems important for an artist to be seen and talked about in order to be successful, but that, on the other hand, this does not leave enough space for the unobtrusive, the integer gesture. A wish that arose during a period of reflection after she had finished the art academy in Korea. The conversation started with her explanation of the concept behind these projects, her wish to operate in the twilight zone between art and life. ‘The (In)Visible Vintage Shop' is the photographic and verbatim record of 15 hours of conversations with the owner of a vintage shop ‘The Christmas Trees Island' is the photographic record of her efforts to give a second life to discarded Christmas trees by replanting them on a secret island. They intrigued us by their careful design, pictures and writings, and above all the projects that underlie them. The reason to invite Minsook as our special guest were a few of her books.
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