Seongsan Art Hall

HA CHA YOUN, Je me brûle / I burn me, 1987, installation-performance, photo documentation, dimensions variable, Supported by the 7th Changwon Sculpture Biennale 2024

Having studied art in France and Germany, HA CHA YOUN work has consistently been motivated by the plight of various minorities who suffer from exclusion and marginalization across society, as well as the widespread social neglect of these same issues. Je me brûle / I burn me is an installation-performance work that HA began when she was studying in Germany, where she witnessed the country’s policy of returning plastic water bottles consumed in the country to their place of production. In 1987, while studying at the École des Beaux-Arts in Nîmes, France, the artist took to the streets with a plastic bag to collect plastic bottles, which she then burned and cooled with water.

 

Seongsan Art Hall

HA CHA YOUN, Reis pflanzen (Planting rice), 1988, installation-performance, video documentation, single channel video, sound, color, 6min 41sec
HA CHA YOUN, Bleibt wie (ein) Baum / Stay as (a) tree, 1989, performance, photo documentation, dimensions variable, Supported by the 7th Changwon Sculpture Biennale 2024

Reis pflanzen (Planting rice) is a performance piece involving discarded newspapers. The performance itself consists of the artist planting small leafy sculptures, dubbed “rice,” around the floor of her studio and surrounds.

In Bleibt wie (ein) Baum / Stay as (a) tree, HA applies red paint on a log that has been cut top to bottom, and then stands, her toes connected to the so-called tree with a red string. The objects in HA’s performance are those that have lost their value from a human perspective. Through this performance, however, they establish a connection to the artist and thereby take on subjecthood in a different sense than before, the act of interacting with them evocative of interaction with the living.

HA CHA YOUN, From 1960 to 2080, 2024, performance, Supported by the 7th Changwon Sculpture Biennale 2024

From 1960 to 2080, which is a performance that took place in Nimes, France in 1989 reenacted in the 7th Changwon Sculpture Biennale 2024. Sitting on the ground, writing numbers starting from 1960, and adding one number at a time. Writing the years in a circular line in a clockwise direction, first one line, then two, and continuing until the arms can reach no further. After leaving home and returning here after 40 years, she starts with the act of grounding the earth before writing numbers: 1960, “Ears are pierced,” 2024, “It’s today,” and finally the sound of shouting “one more line!”