Conceptual Art: Art to Be Understood with the Mind, Not the Eyes

[Anchor]

Conceptual art is art that is understood with the mind, not by looking with the eyes. An exhibition is currently being held to look back at the flow of Korean conceptual art.

Reporter Lee Ju-sang has the story.

[Reporter]

[This Is (Not) Conceptual Art / Through October 11 / National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea]

A door with the German word for "art" written on it has five handles, while a door labeled "life" has no handle at all.

A chair has one leg that is too long and is far too high to sit on.

There are books that contain no text, or are filled entirely with shredded paper.

[Bae Myung-ji / Curator, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea: By stripping away the original functions of objects and inserting stories about life, art, and the uneasy identity of an artist into them.]

The artist rearranged the street addresses of places they visited in order from 1 to 1,000.

There is no location, time, or causal relationship.

At first glance, it looks like an abstract painting, but a closer look reveals the repeated use of the Korean word "nae-don" (my money).

It reflects human obsession with money during the reality of the IMF financial crisis, and demonstrates the paradox of the word, as "nae-don" reversed becomes "don-nae" (pay money).

This is why conceptual art is described as art to be understood with the mind, rather than art to be viewed with the eyes.

[Bae Myung-ji / Curator, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea: By raising fundamental questions about what art truly is, it shifted from visuality and materiality to the dimension of language and thought—the dimension of concepts.]

This exhibition explores the context in which conceptual art, which began in earnest in the 1960s, emerged and developed within Korean contemporary art.

[Bae Myung-ji / Curator, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea: I believe this is an opportunity to take another look at Korean art discourse beyond Dansaekhwa (monochrome painting), experimental art, and Minjung art.]

It suggests that conceptual art still holds valid questions and possibilities within today's reality, transcending past art historical trends.

(Reported by Shin Jin-soo | Video edited by Jeon Min-gyu)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.