WdKA is delighted to welcome Yunjoo Kwak, who joins our team of tutors in the academic year 2020-2021.
Yunjoo Kwak is a South Korean born artist who grew up in Seoul. She graduated from the Dutch Art Institute/ArtEZ (MFA, 2011) in Arnhem and the Korean National University of Arts (MFA, 2008). Yunjoo was an artist-in-residence at The Otolith Group (2015) in London and has participated in various exhibitions and collaborated with different institutes such as the Kuandu Biennale Taiwan; Makassar Biennale; the Korean Cultural Center, London; Studium Generale Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam; Seoul Museum of Art and The Museum of Photography Seoul.
Her major video works include 'Café Downey’s' (2013), 'Chronicle of Plan van Gool' (2014), 'The Defectors' (2017) and 'Only The Ports Are Loyal To Us' (2020). Her practice is research-based and process-oriented, with a focus on architecture and history intersection with the filmmaking process. She works across the disciplines of 'essay' film, photography, digital montage, publication and archiving. She is interested in the blind spots of historical representation and seeks ways to haunt them through her artistic practice. She was also a cook at Pakhuis de Zwijger in Amsterdam until before the global pandemic.
What is your branch of knowledge and subject?
Autonomous Practices, Critical Studies
What is your source of inspiration?
Anger, a pile of books stacked on my desk, and South Korean dramas.
What defines you as a tutor? Your strongest points?
Deep care and empathy
What is your dream/goal as a tutor?
Revolution
Name one item from your bucket list?
Living in a world without racism
Whom would you call true innovator?
I have many many -- Martha Rosler, Laura Poitras and Hito Steyerl. Recently, Adrian Piper has been in my mind a lot. She is an Amerian conceptual artist and philosopher, tirelessly seeking to expose the public's passive acceptance of racism, sexism and xenophobia with the belief that art must become an integral part of society. To quote one of her 'Mythic Being' series from the 1970s, "I Embody Everything You Most Hate and Fear."
