Sohee Park

What inspires me is good art and good exhibitions. It’s where everything begins. I consider myself an evangelist of art. I believe it is my ultimate duty to communicate the value of art.

Curator Sohee Park fells that one should not pit the commercial against the creative but make them work in a synergic manner.

How do you describe yourself in the context of challenging people’s perspectives via your work?

I approach the meaning of the work itself through past exhibitions put up by many great directors and curators. Their cultural produce allowed me to experience a whole another world. Every artwork and word, that I have been deeply touched by, exists somewhere in my soul like the branches of a tree. They help me grow taller and view further as I root myself down in this art world. Thus, I see myself as a producer who bears fruit of new meanings in my work. I am an assistant to fellow colleagues and artists to help them convey their meanings in art. I am also a messenger who spreads those hidden meanings out to the world. The viewers’ perspectives are enlightened with new findings, as a result of this. How do you balance the contradicting elements of your work? Excessive interference or budgetary issues are often the contradictions I face in my work, but it’s only a matter of proficiency. I believe it is about how well experienced you are with what you do. Once I have my directions set, nothing else really affects me greatly. Once I am driven to doing what I in love, the balance is controlled by itself. The process of trying to achieve a goal in a certain work is the way I balance various elements.

Media installation with Pianist Yang Bang Ean. Contemporary Art Curator Sohee Park. Picture by Wooseop Hwang.

Tell us about your curatorial philosophy. How does it all come together?

I imagine myself as a knight fighting for love. We are dealing with art, but truthfully, it’s a battlefield out there. Contemporary exhibitions are mostly not made with art alone.They are now a comprehensive activity which includes a wide variety of elements. Therefore, the curator’s work includes a variety of those elements that are not directly related to the artwork – from brochures, promotional materials to press releases and articles, videos, images and websites. Moreover, there is your public relations strategy, selection of partners, development of training programmes and the struggle to improve the system. What I value the most is that everything needs to be connected to the centre: the theme. From the beginning till the end, the exhibition must grow omni-directionally and organically, connected to the works that compose the exhibition. For example, you do not want to serve the opening of an eco-environment-themed exhibition with disposable tableware. Of course, I don’t think I have mastered it all yet that I can proudly introduce my curatorial philosophy. I am still learning. Everything naturally comes together once I focus on one thing that I have always courted – art.

Let’s talk about your frameworks, references and process. What inspires you?

What inspires me is good art and good exhibitions. It’s where everything begins. I consider myself an evangelist of art. I believe it is my ultimate duty to communicate the value of art. Also, I constantly self-examine to prevent myself from being the main narrative of my curatorial outcome. As Lois Fichner said, “Arts elevate our daily and ordinary experiences to one level, enrich our lives, and make it possible for human beings to go beyond the limits of our bodies.” Studying art for me is like a constant training for my soul to elevate daily, and see what lies beyond the limits.

Installation view, DMZ-landscape, HONG Soun Solo Exhibition, 2019. Image courtesy: Contemporary Art Curator Sohee Park

The duality: art often comes with contradicting motivations, like the commercial versus the creative. How do you strike a balance? Do you handle the commercials yourself or is it outsourced to agents?

I do not think that curators should overlook the importance of money in modern society. However, it is unnecessary to pit the commercial and creative against each other to figure out what is suitable for certain conditions. Sometimes great work based on great marketing result in an amazing synergy. I rarely work as a dealer, but I often engage in commercial tasks. When art is engaged to something commercial, it is loved by the public. Many of my experiences have led to this realisation. For example, in 2011 and 2012 I worked in collaboration with an advertising agency to set up exhibitions for motor companies Toyota and its luxury division, Lexus. In 2017, I worked on Lincoln Continental’s exhibition Re-imagine Project with artist Jang Sung. He is an amazing artist who teaches at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s School of Design as an assistant professor and director of undergraduate studies for the industrial design programme. This project felt more special to me because Sung’s artwork reached many people and they loved his work. There is a case for working with an in-house PR manager or a print designer depending on the financial condition and the scale of the project, since promotions and printouts are important in such events. Outsourcing can be very helpful at certain situations; however, I mostly get myself involved as I believe the subject and theme of the exhibition should always be the basis of PR.

Opening ceremony of with Drift studio, 2017. Contemporary Art Curator Sohee Park (center). Picture by Wooseop Hwang.

As a curator, how does your interaction with an artist evolve from the initial interface to the working relationship?

Admiration is what I look for in an artist. It is because through that very emotion, the work gives me a new perspective to the world. To do that, I often interact with artists and visit their studios. Youngeun Museum of Contemporary Art, where I worked as head of exhibitions, is one of the few museums that have been running big residencies in Korean art history. While working at the museum, my biggest joy was visiting studios and having dialogues with artists. This made it possible to capture details of artworks and understand them from artists’ viewpoint, as well as expand their meaning by curating an organically evolving exhibition. These interactions are also important to understand when to persuade artists to work with you. Artist Hong Soun Myung, who I personally love for his unique ways of expressing the pain of history, is famous for not working with commercial spaces or groups. At that time I was working at a commercial gallery where art magazines were also published for the last 30 years. I persistently visited his atelier and expressed the reasons why his work should be curated at this certain gallery, to persuade him,  It was a historic year as the Chairman of North Korea, Kim Jung-un and the President of South Korea met for the first time, and I wanted to show the public Hong’s series, The DMZ. Although there were many obstacles, the DMZ series will remain as one of the representative projects I have ever done. I still visit his atelier and talk about anything that the narrative of his work leads us to.

Installation view. Bali-jeju ‘coa project’, 2017. Contemporary Art Curator Sohee Park

Which shows, performances and experiences have shaped your own creative process? Who are your maestros? Whose journey would you want to read about?

I am all about books. I love to read and be in the world that the writer takes me to. My experience with books has given me grit. Art is so closely associated with philosophy that there is a saying that art is an eye of philosophy. I believe making efforts to explore the possibilities of subjectivity and thinking beyond the intellectual complex are essential. There are many who inspire me: Matisse, Nam June Paik, St. Ivo of Chartres, Sigmund Bauman, Tom Wolfe, Jill Deleuze, Hal Foster and so on. Besides these great thinkers, exhibitions are also inspirations. Whether they are incredible or not, it is purely up to my ability to fully comprehend it.

Tell us about your own personal evolution vis-a-vis the work that you do. What have you observed in the changing cultural landscape?

As curators we are always working in groups, even when we are working alone. Team harmony is crucial. Because each one is important and keeping pace with each other is the hardest thing to do in my opinion. As a director, I try my best to listen to each team member, regardless of their positions. Having a united fellowship through communication is always my basic point of departure when it comes to supervision. These communications not only help the staff perform better, but also help me grow as an individual. I feel rewarded when I see them become managers or grow together as fellow curators.

What are you working on now? What should we look forward to?

I am currently working as an independent curator, besides being the consultant for a design company for their exhibition-related projects. I am also participating in a mentoring programme for beginners in curatorial studies. This is I will be ready for an exhibition which will be held in India next year. My current goal is to introduce great Korean artists to the world.

Installation view, Sung Jang, MOBI Davinci Codex, 2017. Culture Station 284. Picture by Wooseop Hwang. Contemporary Art Curator Sohee Park

Let’s start at the beginning. 

Ever since I was a child, I have often followed my grandfather to museums. My grandfather was a school teacher who deeply enjoyed calligraphy. His influence and experiencing art in museums led me to majoring in German literature. The study has naturally taken me to Germany, and I have met some wonderful people who have taught me how to enjoy art with your body and soul. Those days were my utopia. As I studied German scholars more deeply, I fell deeper into art. I got a master’s degree in art management. And then started interning in the art industry. For more than a decade, I have been working in the same industry in various sectors like museums, small galleries, big corporate galleries, and small and big art fairs. Whenever a project was completed, I would treat myself by travelling to Europe where there are many historical museums.

Tell us what led to this journey in art?

When I first saw the work of the Drift Studio at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, their fusion of art and science deeply touched and enlightened me. I spent a whole day staring at the work, sitting under it, lying under it, and wandering around it. When I curated an exhibition on the subject of art and technology in Culture Station Seoul 284 in 2015, I finally had the opportunity to contact Drift Studio and exhibit their work in Seoul. We built a huge sofa under the work, so the viewers were able to lie down or sit on it. The happiest moment of my life when I saw viewers watching Drift Studio’s work and enjoying it like I did in Amsterdam. I feel like my life has been naturally flown with art. My personal life interweaves very closely with my work. And this does not bother me. I have experienced how a personal inspiration becomes a reality. It led to me to creating something wonderful and exciting professionally that everyone can enjoy. Instagram Before you go – you might like to browse the Asian Curator curatorial archives . Contemporary art curators and international gallerists define their curatorial policies and share stories and insights about the inner runnings of the contemporary art world.