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World Environmental Issues and Becoming of Korean Ecological Art Discourse: Based on the Concept of ‘Mediation’ in ANT

  • Journal of History of Modern Art
  • 2023, (53), pp.101-127
  • Publisher : 현대미술사학회
  • Research Area : Arts and Kinesiology > Art > Arts in general > Art History
  • Received : May 2, 2023
  • Accepted : June 10, 2023
  • Published : June 30, 2023

Yu HyunJu 1

1한남대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

Based on the mediating concept of actor network theory (ANT), this study aims to investigate mediators who played an important role in forming Korea’s ecological art discourse and to study the significance of current ecological art discourse. Bruno Latour’s mediation theory has the meaning of ‘translation of goals, complexity, overlapping time and space, and delegation’. Mediation forms a network in which heterogeneous objects, both human and non-human actors, interact. The main mediators that form Korea’s ecological art discourse are Yatoo and Baggatmisul, which created such a network starting in the 1980s and later played a mediating role in ecological art. Yatoo was connected to Hamburg through Rim Dong-sik to promote their natural art to the world, and under the influence of the Rio Declaration and Joseph Beuys’ works, it established a complex mediation relationship with global environmental issues. Meanwhile, Baggatmisul held a “History and Environment” exhibition in 1997, when the Kyoto Protocol was proposed, and shows where it was mediated in global environmental issues through environmental-focused exhibitions on Nanjido and Jara island. Since the 2000s, Korean ecological art exhibitions and texts derived from them have served as a medium for delegations to carry out Korea’s ecological art discourse by emphasizing ecological coexistence and frequently showing the reason of “connection.” Through these considerations, we can see that the discourse on Korean ecological art is paying attention to environmental issues around the world and expressing interest in ecological problems of this era in solidarity with complicated actors.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.