[KS] HOFFMANN_SK Korean Pavilion

[Frank Hoffmann]

Dear All:

Rüdiger's posting from Wednesday reminds me that 
in the post-post-everything age we are left with 
"short opinion pieces" instead of, say, a 
sociopolitical analysis or what was in my area of 
interest until the mid-20th century called art 
criticism. Not sure if iPhone screens are too 
small for analytical criticism, but short opinion 
pieces at least do not demand to take 
accountability: if worse comes to worst someone 
will post a different opinion, and that is 
nothing to worry about as it does not count 
either.

Here my even shorter opinion piece--about the 
"Korean Pavilion" (featuring artist Lee Yongbaek) 
at the Venice Biennale 2011, at the new 'Art in 
America' Website, with a small slide show (click 
on the image). Everything really en petit, so 
your iPhone's cute CPU can process words and 
images: no overclocking, no analysis, just 
opinion.

--> http://www.artinamericamagazine.com
--> 
http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-opinion/news/2011-07-08/korean-pavilion-venice-biennale/

The show's official CATALOG, by the way, is available in PDF format:
http://www.korean-pavilion.or.kr/11pavilion/img/LYB.pdf

That above catalog, edited by the Korean 
Pavilion's commissioner, is quite some cultural 
relict in itself--cultural historians might 
unearth that a hundred years from now and might 
wonder what the heck this was all about: from 
Zhuangzi's butterfly dream to Baudrillard's 
Simulacra and Simulation to the triumph of 
"Hitler-like leaders" (p. 68) in contemporary 
Korea--nobody and nothing is left out. Aim high! 
We are told Commissioner Yun "has lived for the 
reconstruction of Asian art and Korean culture" 
(p. 67). Sounds obnoxiously familiar, somehow. 
I'd suggest the 18th century then. How's that? If 
anyone ever wondered whether there is anything 
like "development" in modern art ... I bet your 
iPhone Google app says no. Trust it.


Greetings from Veniceland,
Frank Hoffmann