The 14th Gwangju Biennale and the Transformation of Anne Duk Hee Jordan

By the Gwangju News

Gwangju has always been aiming to remember the struggle and sad history of the May 18 Democratic Uprising through aesthetic means. Since first being held in 1995, the Gwangju Biennale has been establishing itself as Asia’s oldest and most prestigious art exhibition, contributing to Korea’s contemporary art and introducing Korean art and its talented artists to the world.

This year, from April 7 to July 9, the Gwangju Biennale will host its 14th Biennale, showcasing works from 79 artists, half of which are new works that have never been exhibited previously. The theme “soft and weak like water” (柔弱於水) was inspired from Tao Te Ching, a classic Chinese text by Laozi. “soft and weak like water” refers to the power that brings change, not through immediate effect but from continuous endurance and gentleness, flowing through structural differences and divisions.¹ It sends a message of hope for peace and democracy through various locations in the city, including Gwangju Biennale Exhibition Hall, Gwangju National Museum, Horanggasy Art Polygon (호랑가시나무 아트 폴리곤), Mugak Temple (무각사), and Art Space House (예술공간 집). Gwangju National Museum will showcase a ceramic collection, Horanggasi-namu Art Polygon will feature arts exploring humankind and nature, Mugak Temple will feature meditative works on the nature of life, and Art Space House will run art projects and workshops.

Of the 79 artists, the Gwangju News is fortunate to have reached Anne Duk Hee Jordan, an established artist based in Berlin who will debut a suite of interactive robots at the Biennale. These newly designed robotic entities will be merged with immersive installations that developed out of Jordan’s continued fascination with marine life, technology, sexuality, nutrition, and ecology. Our interview with the artist is as follows.

Gwangju News (GN): Hello and thank you very much for accepting our proposal for an interview. It is an honor for us to meet you! Could you please tell us a little bit about yourself, when you started being involved in the arts, and your professional background?

Anne Duk Hee Jordan: My name is Anne Duk Hee Jordan, and I am an artist but also trained as a chef and professional therapist for autistic kids. I also did my training as a rescue diver and freediver. I integrate all this still in my artistic practice (except the therapy thing). I think I always liked to build and install worlds around me, but it took me a while until I studied art. However, once I was committed, I could not stop.

GN: We understand that you are based in Berlin. What about the Berlin art scene made you want to move there?

Jordan: I moved to Berlin because of my studies. I always wanted to become a painter and studied in Düsseldorf. My landlords at the time were Anna and Bernhard Blume, the famous photographer couple in Cologne. As for why I moved to Berlin, Bernhard once told me, “Maybe it’s not about painting; it’s probably just that the city doesn’t want you.” He was right. So, I applied to the sculpture department at Berlin Weissensee and got in. After earning my Vordiplom, I left to finish up my studies at the Institute for Spatial Experiments with Olafur Eliassion. The end of the story is not that the Berlin art scene made me move there, it was Bernhard Blume [smiles].

GN: How has exposure to the Berlin (and European) art scene changed your approach to art?

Jordan: I have lived most of the time there, so I guess I am an assimilated artist.

GN: Coming from two different cultures – East and West – how do you think it influences your art and thoughts?

Jordan: I mean, that is a tough cookie to answer. I grew up in the West, but my DNA and all the rest of my molecules and matter are 100-percent Korean. (I did a 23andMe DNA test.) I was born in Korea, and I lived the first 3–4 years in Seoul but later got adopted in Germany. I cannot really remember much of my time in Korea. The only thing I know is that I always had special taste buds which obviously did not belong to Europe. So, I guess my culinary artistic practice is very much Asian, and my thoughts – who knows – they do what they want, whether they are in Europe or somewhere else in the world.

GN: Many of your artworks are installations incorporating an eclectic combination of nature and modern technology, many of them involving movement. Could you tell us what attracted you to this genre and what the nature-and-technology message is that is embedded in so much of your work?

Jordan: It comes from the same source called nature, and everything is related. If we think ecologically, we need to think circularly and without interruption. All our resources, energy, inspiration, and medical research are from organic living matter. If I zoom out of my body and look at the universe, I assume I do not even exist in a larger scale. That is why I like movement, romantic machines, sculptures, and plants. That is why I create Artificial Stupidity, an ongoing robotic series of failing machines. These unintelligent machines, trying to reclaim their right to exist and through their failing gestures at trying to save the world, explain why we need more artificial stupidity in this world. But coming back to the question, everything is fluid, in constant movement, and related to each other. That is why my work builds up into a circle of constant movement.

GN: While many artists focus on one genre with limited materials, such as oil on canvas, your art genre, in addition to installations, ranges from photography to performance art. And your materials run the gamut from insects and plants to technology and machinery, large and small. Can you tell us where this incredible variety and uniqueness in materials and subject matter comes from?

Jordan: I use different methods, materials, and mediums in order to make the artwork understandable, visible, and perceptual. Depending on what work I am engaged in, I start to do my research in order to understand what I am doing. It is never a fixed medium, nor a fixed approach. I try to be as flexible as possible and always challenge myself.

GN: When you are not busy creating art, what do you usually do in your spare time?

Anne Duk Hee Jordan: The thing is my brain – I wish I could just turn it off for some time, but that is impossible, so I always create something (smile). Unfortunately, I do not live by the sea, but when I am there, I go freediving. Freediving is so incredible, silent, and relaxing. It is not a matter of how deep or how long you can be under water: It is a state of mind, a deep meditation. The moment you are in the water, the dive reflex starts, which is an amazing asset. You become a fish, your body changes, your heart rate drops, your organs get smaller and smaller, and you start to live longer. In the first month of a human embryo, the hands and feet are basically fish fins. Only one genetic defect could change all that. The same goes for our heart. In the development stage, the human heart has two chambers, the same as fish. Is that not amazing? I love to spend my time under water and be a fish, but I also know the power of the ocean, and I do not underestimate it. I was diving in Thailand at the time when the tsunami hit in 2004.

GN: Will this be your first visit to Gwangju? What is your hope by participating in this year’s Biennale?

Jordan: I am so looking forward to it, and yes, it is my first time. It is my first time after 43 years being back in Korea – crazy!

GN: Could you give us a “sneak preview” of what you are preparing to exhibit at the upcoming Gwangju Biennale?

Jordan: It will be a mirror universe, an underwater galaxy with inhabitants of the latest artificial stupidity robots. This includes five extraordinary soap bubble clone brains of James Lovelock and his master brain itself. Another protagonist created for this temple is The Godess of the Sea, a seaweed dancer who represents all life forms, from heaven to earth and from soil to plankton, which is accompanied by a Zen gong for Buddhist ghosts swarming in the temple, and a possibility for the visitors to meditate and contemplate with the cloned brains.

GN: Incredible! We are so looking forward to seeing your underwater galaxy at the Biennale when it opens in April. Thank you for this interview.

Source

¹ Lee, S.-K. (n.d.). The title of the 14th Gwangju Biennale is “soft and weak like water.” Gwangju Biennale. https://www.gwangjubiennale.org/en/Board/11012/detailView.do

Photographs courtesy of Anne Duk Hee Jordan and the Gwangju Biennale Foundation.