Park Byoung-Uk

performance, sculpture, curation, South Korea

Mutual Comfort performance in the winter of 2???

Park Byoung-Uk's work, at the edge of installation and performance, is often a hommage to nature or the environment, such as his performance, Mutual Comfort. Although we see him hugging the tree, for him the embrace was a two-way process. Like many indigenous cultures around the world, Park seeks to animate nature by engaging with her as an active participant. Often his works seem shamanistic. For him these performances lie at the edge of art and ritual, as they are a means for communing with the divine through nature.

Since 1996, Park Byoung-Uk has organized the annual international environment art festival: www.9dragonheads.com, held in a natural reserve about 2 hours south of Seoul. The 1997 event was the largest, involving 70 artists from over twenty countries.

Inter-course, performance by Park Byoung-Uk.

Brucke (Bridge), 2000, performance/installation for the hofgarten, Innsbruk, Austria,
by Park Byoung-Uk. Branches and plastic foil.

My world is the natural world and in a sense this is the source of existence. Here art is like a bridge between this world and human society.
This bridge symbolizes communication between humanity and Nature.

Brucke (Bridge), 2000, performance/installation for the hofgarten, Innsbruk, Austria,
by Park Byoung-Uk.

Choc Chokey / Kunst Heuriger, 2001 Kunsthalle Krems (Austria) Prison project
by Park Byoung-Uk.

While an artist residence at the Krems Kunsthalle in August and September, 2001, I chose to make an installation and performance at the nearby prison. Krems has a very long history of human occupation (for example the Venus of Willendorf was found here). During the Roman Age wine was cultivated here. The baroque prison building was an old monastary and the locals are very angry that hte government now uses this as a prison. In response to this, government has invested energy in cultural events in the museum, the concert hall, festivals and the artist residency. I decided on the themes “ Choc-Chokey” and “ Kunst Heuriger” in response to this environment. I made fake chocolates out of wine snails set in paraffin trays. Wine snails are a speciality here. Chokey is an old word for prison.
In the summer heat as the paraffin melted, the snails tried to escape.

Detail of one of the objects viewed through the glass above: Choc Chokey / Kunst Heuriger, 2001 Kunsthalle Krems (Austria) Prison project
by Park Byoung-Uk.

Detail: Choc Chokey / Kunst Heuriger, 2001 Kunsthalle Krems (Austria) Prison project
by Park Byoung-Uk.

So the installation consisted largely of "information-display" boxes in prison and along the street. Thousands of tourists to this village stopped to examine these.
I performed each day with a broom made out of the roots of the gruner valtliner vine. This wine was first cultivated about a thousand years ago. I chose this in response to the current issues on cross-breeding in this area.

So I was cleaning up the streets of the Kunsthalle Krems and the prison with roots from before the days of cross-breeding for financial gain.

After each 'sweep up' I put the broom into the display cabinet with the accompanying documentation.

Arts Dialogue, Dintel 20, NL 7333 MC, Apeldoorn, The Netherlands
email: bafa@bahai-library.com