The Election as a Platform for Contemporary Art

‘The Better Man 1948-2020: Pick Your Representative for the National Assembly’, co-hosted by Ilmin Museum of Art and the National Election Commission, is an exhibition that draws on the legacy of past elections. The exhibition looks at the system named election as a scene of competition and conflict, and as a ‘social drama’ where various performances take place. It questions, ‘how do election and voting become a platform for contemporary art?’. In the archives recording key historical events, the works of contemporary artists are displayed and annotated. They demur and induce the audience to participate.

The exhibition hall on the first floor, entitled ‘Who is the patriot?’, covers the history of democracy in Korea, dating from Korea’s first election ‘Constitutional Assembly Election on May 10th’ to the June Democratic Uprising. Is it because the election took immediately after the Liberation? All the candidates who ran for the first election stressed the fact that they are ‘patriots’. For instance, phrases such as ‘Cast a sacred vote from patriotism, for the father of the country, Dr. Seung-Man Lee’ is written in the propaganda. However, on the opposite side of this archive, ‘’69 promises’ (Ahn Kyuchul) reminds the audience of the slogan’s ‘real self’. The difference between the policy and ideology are not noticeable in the ’69 electoral posters, which are converted to monochrome paintings where only faint election slogans remain. Instead, ideals and optimism for the future and deep-seated ambitions are made visible.

The exhibition hall on the second floor, entitled ‘In Search of a Vote’, used the campaign rally as the subject. When one enters the exhibition hall, the electoral posters for candidates from the 1960s and 1970s fill one side of the wall and make a strong impression. The candidates are all men in their 40s and 50s, wearing tie and staring out with a stern look. While those who were both directly involved in the campaign and leading politics at the time fill the walls ‘superficially’, the contemporary artists call out the subjects who had been neglected, allowing them to be fully expressed in the space. The ‘Korean Dream’ (Choi Haneyl) expresses the imaginations of transgender individuals, single mothers, homosexuals, refugees, and foreign workers becoming members of the National Assembly and the ‘Animal Party Manifesto’ that devised an appropriate election format and platform on the basis that animals are given the right to vote are displayed here. On the other hand, the infographic installation ‘I WAS, I AM, I WILL’ (Optical Race), which allowed for the comparison of the political life cycle of politicians by generation, was covered with shade during this campaign period, judging that it may have an impact on the election. Moreover, several associated programmes were arranged to raise the audience’s interest in politics, but they could not run smoothly due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Cho Juhyun (Chief Curator, Ilmin Museum of Art) said that the exhibition ‘focused on the participation and role played by each voter, rather than treating the election as a competition between the winner and the loser’, and that ‘there are elements that can be read and enjoyed by generation, as people have different sensitivity about politics and elections’. The exhibition will be on display until June 21.