Young Swiss, Korean photographers showcased at Gwangju Biennale Swiss Pavilion

The Swiss Pavilion at the 14th Gwangju Biennale shows a logo commemorating diplomatic relations between Switzerland and South Korea. The logo features mugunghwa and edelweiss, the national flowers of South Korea and Switzerland, respectively. (Park Yuna/The Korea Herald)

GWANGJU -- In celebration of the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Switzerland and South Korea, the Embassy of Switzerland in Seoul is presenting “Spaceless,” an exhibition at the Swiss Pavilion in the 14th Gwangju Biennale.

The pavilion, set up at Leeleenam Studio, is a collaboration of eight young photographers from the two countries. It presents the urban environment through an artistic lens, and a photographic rediscovery of urban spaces.

Curated by Chun Kyung-woo, artist and professor of photography at Chung-Ang University, the exhibition was shown at the Swiss Embassy compound in Seoul last year. As the exhibition attracted huge interest, the Gwangju Biennale invited the exhibition to the city for the Gwangju Biennale Pavilion, according to the embassy. This year marks the 60th anniversary of the two nations’ diplomatic relations.

Photographs by Florian Amoser are on display at the exhibition "Spaceless" at Leeleenam Studio in Gwangju. (Park Yuna/ The Korea Herald)

Swiss photographer Florian Amoser sees photography as an extension of human perception. Therefore, changes in the process of photographic imaging also result in a changed perception of the physical environment in a wider context.

“There are very important engineering infrastructures, but they never become visual. This one (an engineering infrastructure in photograph) is somewhere in the Alps, and there is no stream and nothing is around it. I programmed a drone to fly pass the ‘concrete sculpture’ and scan it. For me it is also research about how a camera starts to think with you,” Amoser told The Korea Herald.

Three other Swiss artists -- Alexandra Dautel, Younes Klouche and Margot Sparkes -- are also participating in the pavilion's presentation.

An installation view of photographs by Kim Do-young at the Swiss Pavilion in Gwangju (Courtesy of the artist)

Works by four young Korean artists – Kim Do-young, Yun Tae-jun, Jung Ji-hyung and Jeong Young-ho -- are also being shown at the exhibition. Gwangju-based Kim took photographs of exposed parts of buildings, created three-dimensional works of the exposed structures and then photographed each paper sculpture.

"I wanted to explore how solidity can be visualized, and I also wanted to see the irony that exists between visual perception and the actual object. I used very thin paper, which weighs 80 grams for a unit area (1 meter by 1 meter), for the paper sculptures," Kim said.

The exhibition runs through July 9 at Leeleenam Studio in Yangnim-dong, a historic town in Gwangju.

The 14th Gwangju Biennale kicked off on April 3 with the theme “Soft and Weak Like Water.”

By Park Yuna(yunapark@heraldcorp.com)