MAJ Exhibition: Project Outcome

[In Search of 'Down Time']

Through the MAJ program, I attempted to explore the sense of 'migration.' First of all, I set myself as the subject of experiment. Every time I moved to a new residence place during the MAJ program, I tried to absorb the space and time taking the point of view/attitude of a migrant. I documented all the senses that came out of this process. For any migrant who needs to accept a new place as their next living ground, he/she needs to acquaint oneself with the environment/system/rules of the unfamiliar place. Taking 'migration' as an unavoidable premise, I concentrated my focus on things that look and sound different. Those things that would slide by without notice for the local inhabitants, those things that a traveler seeking historically significant or spectacular images would neglect.... The inhabitant and the traveler--I gathered materials that are difficult to approach from these two positions.

Migration is not a concept that is only used to explain the life and movement of human beings. Nor is it a concept that is based on movement between two physical locations. One can imagine a migration from one generation to another; from one system to another; or a migration on the level of medium, for instance, the transition from film to digital media. In my case, I could experience 'other' migrations while I was migrating during the MAJ program. I honed my sense of migration whilst deliberating between the two poles - each a different process and form of migration with its own definition.
I named my MAJ project as 'Downtime.' When defining the 'system migration' in the IT industry, the term 'downtime' is used to refer to the time the system is unavailable. In the original definition, it would be considered ideal if the downtime was reduced to zero. Here, I attempt to expand the downtime. Within the downtime, a space/time/region can be differently interpreted and I hope there arises a margin where life and its systems can be reflected.

[List of Works]

Work #1 "Downtime" (Two-channel video, 3min/6min)
Work #2 "Hot Migration" (Mixed-media installation with printed images and projected images)

[Event Info]

http://www.3331.jp/schedule/en/004076.html

Artist Profile

Cyclical Night/2016/17min, 17th Jeonju International Film Festival (Best Director Prize - Korean Competition For Shorts)
i-image / 2015 / 14min, indieforum 2015/Seoul Independent Documentary Film & Video Festival 2016/23th Visionaria International Film Festival (Siena, Italy)
Asian Arts Theatre, Producer, 2014

Base of activity : South Korea
Nomination: Barim (Gwangju, South Korea)/Website: https://barimart.wordpress.com/about_barim/

Born in Suwon, South Korea. Jongkwan Paik received his BFA in Psychology from Chung-Ang University and MFA in Film from the Graduate School of Communication and Arts at Yonsei University. For his Master's thesis, he analyzed the digital image of Chris Marker (Paper link). Jongkwan collects images and sounds in daily life, working through the process of contemplation of their social context and--simultaneously--of the materiality of the film medium. He continues to produce experimental films based on research with in-depth study of images.