The title, ‘In Ekklesia,’ comes from the Greek word ‘ecclesia,’ which refers to the democratic parliament that served Athens in its halcyon days by being open to male citizens every other year. Solon, an Athenian legislator and a sage, allowed all citizens to serve the parliament regardless of their social class in BC 594. The Ecclesia made decisions about war, military strategies, and all judicial and administrative issues. This work satirizes various facets of humans and machines in the 21st century, unconsciously within a dystopian environment. Isabella Fürnkäs introduces a method of combining and overlaying countless images in her work, providing the new experience of sensations that act in ambiguous flows, movements, interference, and interjection. The piece is about the new metaphysical and material connections appearing through digital conversations that are divorced from the general notion of time and space, as well as isolation and alienation.
Hyunjeung Kim for Wrap around the time, Nam June Paik Art Center, Seoul
Two TV monitors are obliquely stationed on a white mattress, like pillows on a bed. The viewers can see fragments of images passing through the monitor, and hear the sound of a woman conversing in a low voice, mainly asking about her counterpart’s mental state or bringing up gender-specific topics. The images, projected along with dialogues such as “hi,” “how are you,” or “I can’t see,” do not appear to be relevant. An androgynous-looking figure, appearing to be asleep on the bed, exhibits the ‘powerful sense of solitude’ nestled within an individual living in our own time, back turned toward the TV monitor. The artist focuses on reflecting on the fragmented order of time in our era, and narrating this topic in a language that exists somewhere in between compressed expressions and the description of a fragile figure. The viewers are offered an opportunity to ponder on the various possibilities that are brought forth through familiarity and new concepts about communities.
Hyunjeung Kim for Wrap around the time, Nam June Paik Art Center, Seoul