Oum Jeongsoon Wins Inaugural Park Seo-Bo Art Prize at Gwangju Biennale
At the opening ceremony of the 2024 Gwangju Biennale, named 'soft and weak like water', Korean artist Oum Jeongsoon (b. 1961) received the first-ever Park Seo-Bo Art Prize. Sponsored by the GIZI Foundation, which oversees the estate of painter Park Seo-Bo, the award comes with a $100,000 prize. A panel of five jurors selected Oum, including Frances Morris (Director, Tate Modern), Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev (Director, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art), Mami Kataoka (Director, Mori Art Museum), Yun Bummo (Director, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea), and independent curator Yoon Jae-gap. Her winning piece, 'Elephant without Trunk' (2023), is a large fabric installation inspired by a fifteenth-century elephant's journey from Indonesia to Jangdo island in Korea via Japan, focusing on the experiences of the visually impaired.
Key facts
- Oum Jeongsoon won the inaugural Park Seo-Bo Art Prize at the Gwangju Biennale opening ceremony.
- The prize is worth $100,000 and sponsored by the GIZI Foundation.
- The jury included Frances Morris, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Mami Kataoka, Yun Bummo, and Yoon Jae-gap.
- The winning work is a large-scale fabric installation 'Elephant without Trunk' (2023).
- The installation retraces a fifteenth-century elephant's journey from Indonesia to Korea's Jangdo island via Japan.
- Oum used sensory experiences of visually impaired people to reinterpret the elephant.
Entities
Artists
- Oum Jeongsoon
- Park Seo-Bo
Institutions
- Gwangju Biennale
- GIZI Foundation
- Tate Modern
- Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art
- Mori Art Museum
- National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea
Locations
- Gwangju
- South Korea
- Indonesia
- Jangdo island
- Japan