Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 3rd Street, Yerba Buena Gardens District, San Francisco
United States of America
6 December 2008 - 22 March 2009
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) presents transPOP: Korea Vietnam Remix in YBCA’s First Floor Galleries.
The exhibition offers a rare opportunity to view cutting-edge contemporary art by sixteen critically acclaimed artists from Vietnam, Korea and their respective diasporas in the United States.
The featured artworks in transPOP explore interconnections between Vietnam and Korea, including the intersections of history, trauma and contemporary popular culture, using a variety of mediums – paint, video, photography, sculpture, installation, and documentary footage.
“My co-curator Viet Le and I conceived the exhibition during a lunch of budae jigae (translated as army base stew – a Korean goulash-like holdover from the Korean War days) to reflect our interest in the dynamic pulse of transnational and inter-Asian cultural flows as well as the twinned forces of media and migration,” said co-curator Yong Soon Min.
Though the interactions between Vietnam and Korea span centuries, transPOP: Korea Vietnam Remix focuses on their shared history of a highly accelerated modernization process with militarized roots and the Cold War.
During the American War in Vietnam, the Republic of Korea was the second largest foreign military and economic presence in Vietnam behind the United States, with over 300,000 combat forces and approximately 24,000 skilled workers in exchange for substantial U.S. aid.
The financial boon from the involvement in the war played a catalytic role in the development of Korea, laying the foundation for what is now the world’s 12th largest economy.
The legacy of the Cold Wars is evident in the large Korean and Vietnamese diasporic communities in the U.S. In Vietnam, this accelerated modernity is evident in the breakneck speed of current economic development, as well as its entry into the World Trade Organization.
Since the late nineties, Vietnam and Korea have witnessed a significant development of popular culture, fostering greater cultural proximity locally and abroad. A global phenomenon known as the “Korean Wave,” has popularized Korean television dramas, pop stars, music, films and fashion through East, Southeast Asia and beyond since the new millennium.
As part of a growing inter-Asian flow of pop culture, the Korean Wave has also been influential in Vietnam, spurring numerous joint efforts between the two countries. “V-Pop” and “Viet Wave,” or Vietnamese pop music and film, has created an explosion of pop stars and media products in Vietnam and overseas.
The triangulated relationship between Korea, Vietnam and the U.S. forged through war in Vietnam is also manifest in the increased cross-pollination of cultural influence and exchange.
transPOP: Korea Vietnam Remix is part of YBCA’s Imagining Our Future series, one of the three Big Ideas that guide this season’s programming.
In the midst of an ever-changing world, many artists wonder about what the future holds and what they can create to make life more enriching. Artists imagine a future that is as complex, rich and challenging as the present, but also one that is surprising and maybe even startling.
YBCA brought together a group of artists whose visions of people, the kind of world they have created, and what the future could be within it are thought-provoking and often profoundly moving.
The metaphorical power of art to help imagine the unknowable is at the heart of their work. Like many around them, these artists are driven by a sense of urgency about the future.
Want to see what 24 hours of creative awesomeness look like? Click here.
This news message is supported by The Creative Finder, an online platform for photographers, illustrators, designers, and art directors to promote their portfolios towards new clients and collaborators. Creatives who wish to sign up for an account can save 10% off annual fees with promo code 'designtaxi'.
