ROME.- From September 27 to November 30, 2014 on the occasion of the 130th anniversary of the bilateral relations between Italy and South Korea commemorating the pact of friendship, commerce and navigation signed on 26th June 1884 by the Kingdoms of Joseon and Italy, the Trajan Markets - Imperial Forum Museums present a major exhibition dedicated to Korean sculptor Park Eun Sun curated by Gabriele Simongini. Born in 1965, Park Eun Sun, one of the most famous sculptors in South Korea, has lived and worked in Italy at Pietrasanta for twenty-two years. During the exhibition at the Trajan Markets, sponsored by the Embassy of the Korean Republic and realized in Italy by the Copernico Studio in Milan, the artist exhibits 13 large sculptures, some of which were created, ‘site-specific’, for the occasion.
The most impressive of these sculptures is "Accrescimento – colonna infinita III", which is seven meters high. One of the focal points and assets of the exhibition is the comparison-dialogue of the column motif in the short circuit between Roman columns and the ones carved by Park with the hybridization of different traditions (from the ancient stone towers of Korean Buddhist temples, to Roman and Romanesque architecture, up to the legacy of Constantin Brancusi).
The contemporary junction originating from these two ancient civilizations assumes a concrete form both in the sculptures of Park Eun Sun, a Korean transplanted in Italy, as well as in the exhibition “Le chiavi di Roma. La città di Augusto” (“The keys of Rome. The city of Augustus”) at the Trajan Markets, where the celebration of the two thousandth anniversary of the first Roman Emperor’s death has been sponsored by the advanced technologies of Samsung, the brand associated with Korean economic power throughout the world. «My sculptures must be placed in this impressive environment with respect - says the artist – thus complying with and emphasizing the beauty of its architectural and spatial rhythms that, from time to time, expands with a horizontal or vertical course. Mine is a sort of devoted offering to this magnificent and powerful scenario».
As Simongini notes in the catalogue published by Silvana Editoriale: « in Park’s exhibition, East and West, Korean tradition and Italian civilization do not simply establish an ephemeral dialogue but, rather, converge reciprocally by intertwining and interbreeding in order to create a new cultural organism that is neither local, global, nor even “glocal”, but which, instead has become a new possible model able to link different civilizations on equal terms.
In his abstract works the well-organized duality of new junctions is clearly visible in both the two-colour surface (granite red and black, white and gray marble, etc.) as well as in the organic fruitful grafting of apparently incompatible solids (cubes and spheres, for example).
Among Park Eun Sun’s many solo shows, outstanding exhibitions were held at the University of Zurich (2006), Marino Marini Museum of Florence (2009), Villa Bertelli Foundation at Forte dei Marmi (2012), Park “'La comune de Hesperange” at Hesperange (Luxemburg, 2013), city centre of Lugano (2013), Lacke & Farben Gallery of Berlin (2014) and at the Municipal Museum of La Baule (France 2014). His works also form part of prestigious collections, including those of the Korean National Museum of Modern Art in Seoul, the Seoul Metropolitan Museum of Art, and in large companies such as Samsung, Hyundai, Hana Bank, GM Korea (formerly Daewoo) and in Europe at the University of Zurich and the headquarters of the European Regional Bank of Turin.
The catalogue, published by Silvana Editoriale, presents an interesting essay by Gabriele Simongini as well as an interview with the artist by Luciano Caprile.
