(LEAD) New exhibition brings 'ugly' art to forefront

(ATTN: CORRECTS exhibition period in 2nd para)
By Woo Jae-yeon

SEOUL, March 7 (Yonhap) -- When you visit a gallery, you probably expect to feel relaxed and inspired while enjoying beautiful pieces of art, not frowning at some repulsive, haunting images that depict a distorted or gutted human body.

A new exhibition "Ugly as Art" by Seoul National University's Museum of Art, which runs from March 7 to May 14, challenges the conventional belief that art should be beautiful to look at.

The exhibit shows 50 paintings, installations and videos by 13 artists -- eight Korean artists including Suh Yong-sun, Sim Seung-wook and Lee Keun-min and five foreign ones such as French artist Olivier de Sagazan and German photographer Thomas Demand.

"Many visitors might find the art pieces on display uncomfortable because they are not used to seeing such grotesque visual images (in galleries). But should visiting a gallery always be enjoyable and comfortable?" asked Chung Youg-mok, director of the museum, during a press briefing on Tuesday.

There is no absolute ugliness in the world and a distinction between beauty and ugliness is only man-made and ever-shifting, the director said.

"The intent of the exhibition is to create an environment that makes gallery-goers feel uneasy and think about why they feel that way."

Chung Shin-young, research professor and the main curator, said while preparing for the exhibit, she could hardly find any exhibition in or out of the country that brought ugliness to the fore.

For the last year, the museum staff often brainstormed how to create a convincing show that successfully brings together what is often falsely believed to be two very different concepts of art and ugliness.

"When we talk about ugliness here, we are not only saying in terms of physicality but also talking about a sad state of mind, distress and sickness. We focused on a wide variety of ugliness."

Young artist Lee Keun-min displays a confused, hallucinated state of mind in paintings that involve gross, eerie images of the human body. The internal organs in blood and formless, grotesque figures are hard to look at, even for a split second.

"I often saw these images under hallucination while I was mentally ill a few years ago. These are surely not very pretty, so they probably fit with the exhibition's theme," the artist said.

"But for me, they are the honest manifestation of my mind, which is a positive thing for me."

Installation artist Sim Seung-wook looks beyond what people can see from outside to explore the inner ugliness of society.

His pitch-black installation "Between Absence and Pressure," which uses various materials like vinyl, aluminum, wood and discarded tires, looks doomed and ominous. It looks like something badly burned and completely useless. Getting the motif from the Sewol ferry disaster, he said he tries to portray a society deeply scarred, divided and in tatters.

Referring to the political unrest and confusion from President Park Geun-hye's corruption scandal and her impeachment that is currently rocking the country, Sim said, "There are already so many ugly things going on in real life. So I am worried how effectively the exhibition's theme will get across to people who come to see this."

jaeyeon.woo@yna.co.kr
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