Artsonje gives high 'Five' to artists.

(From The Korea Herald)

By Iris Moon A festive mood prevails over Artsonje Center's two-floor exhibition, "Five," a smartly packaged permanent collection exhibit that marks the center's fifth anniversary. Artsonje offers a rare glimpse into its coffers, revealing in the process how far it and its artists have come. Made up of an eclectic mixture of works by 18 Korean and foreign artists, the exhibit has a chummy, egalitarian tinge to it, considering the fact that many of the artists were reared by the center before reaching their current cachet. No singular artist or work dominates over the rest, creating a nice curatorial synergy. Although the center started showing young contemporary artists' works in 1995, the fifth anniversary exhibition marks the 1998 completion of its current building. Many of the pieces are from Artsonje's first group show in 1995, "Ssack," or seedling, which was housed in the original hanok house that once stood on its Sogyeok-dong grounds and from the Artsonje Museum in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province. It gives curator Kim Sung-jung the warm fuzzies to think of how artists such as Chung So-young and Bahc Yiso (both represented Korea in this year's Venice Biennale) have grown up and become established artists, no doubt with the help of the center. "We're trying to figure out whether we should seek out younger artists or keep showing the artists we've been working with. Our young spirit is the same as it was when we first started. But now the artists have become too famous!" said Kim. The second floor maintains a cool, calm and collected appearance, with the works arranged in a sparse manner, most of them pushed against the walls. "Lighten, exfoliate, sooth, revive," the neon words in Sylvie Fleury's "Bigger Splash" (2001), which were taken from cosmetic packaging, suggestively guide viewers around the space. Lee Bul's white foam fem-bots, "Cyborg W1-W4" (1998) are hung throughout the space like enlarged Christmas ornaments from the year 2040. "Substrat 10 II" (2003), the work of German conceptual photographer Thomas Ruff, feels somewhat out of place, having been consigned to the dark, closed off space near the entrance. One of Artsonje's latest acquisitions to be included in the show, the large psychedelic photograph gives trendy clout to "Five," acting as a sort of investor's pretty addendum. At an auction this May in New York, a Ruff inkjet print, "Substrat II," went for roughly $74,000. Lee Dongi's acrylic on canvas work, ...