Korea South

Artist: Jin Aun Kim

* 1975 in Seoul, Korea
Art Study at the Hong-Ik University in Seoul
1998 Exchange-Exhibition in Tokyo (Korea-Japan)
1998 Price of New Prontier, University of Art Korea and Handok Art Company
2002 Correspondent of Korea-Art-Design Magazine
2002 - 2004 Study at the University of Art in Berlin (Prof. W. Petrick)
Solo and group exhibitions: Berlin, Düsseldorf, Seoul and Tokyo

Interpretation

As the bear is the symbol for Berlin, for Korea its the first mother in history. Based on a legend people say that several thousand years ago, when Hwanung - a son of heaven - was ruling the people, a female bear and a tiger lived together who wanted to be human. They begged Hwanung to fulfill their wish. He was moved by the request and promised to transform them into humans should they be able to live in a cave for 100 days and live of nothing but garlic and mugwort.

The tiger lost patience in the dark cave; it couldn't hunt and gave up. The bear, however, passed the test and was turned into a woman. She asked Hwanung to find her a husband. He liked her so much that he married her himself. The couple had a son called Dangun. He went off on his travels and found a country with pure, clear water and wonderful mountains, where the colourful bunch of seasons seemed to be so ideal to him that he decided to settle down.

2333 BC he founded the empire of Gososeun, the first state of Korea. In his ideology, the "Hong-Ik Ingan", he describes the harmonious co-existence between the sky, the earch and humankind.

Jin Aun Kim