Thinking back to Lee Lee-Nam’s exhibition last year at G-MAP - Gwangju 5.18: The Memories of Lee Lee Nam

An exhibition attended last year during the 14th Gwangju Biennale, very much reflecting and looking forward to the 2024 edition!

In the past decade, the art community has seen a rapid surge of Korean Dansaekhwa art, in not only the institutional setting such as biennales and museums but also commercial demand in the art market. This has marginalized many groups of Korean artists within Korea, particularly those who create works that address issues of political or authoritarian memory. This de facto censorship from the market stems from the Park Chung Hee regime of the 1960s and 1970s, in which there was a decree from the Ministry of Information to uphold traditional Korean values, making it mandatory for exhibitions to get government approval before art could be publicly displayed. In 1980, this policy rapidly deteriorated when military general Chun Doo Hwan seized power through a coup d'état after the assassination of Park. It was no longer about upholding traditional values but rather protecting the authoritarian regime that was in power to control the national narrative.

This among other issues, led university students around the nation aspiring to gain basic human rights and a free democratic political system, to peacefully demonstrate throughout cities in the country. The voices of students and aggression from the state, reached a boiling point in May of 1980, in the Southwest city of Gwangju, which lasted nine days and was later remembered as the Gwangju Uprising. The lives of the city residents and those in the outlying areas would forever be changed, as Korean military paratroopers opened fire killing hundreds of students and civilians, in a quest to maintain ultimate control of the city under the orders of Chun.

The exhibition The Light That Shines on Each Person, by artist Lee Lee-Nam, brings the viewer back to 1980 and the events that followed the massacre, creating a public history of Gwangju. This is demonstrated through his memory as a twelve-year-old fifth grader, exploring issues of reality versus dreams. Lee lived roughly 25 km away from downtown Gwangju, in the town of Damyang, which was also heavily impacted by the 5.18 events. The narrative of the exhibition becomes evident from the moment entering the Gwangju Media Art Platform (G-MAP), greeted by a seated little girl sculpture reading a book. Projected on the ground around her is writing stating, 'The weather is fine on May 18, 1980', a reference to Lee not knowing why the school was being canceled on a non-inclement weather day and why the cancellation would last for over a week. In his rural village, he was also unable to take a bus and saw no cars on the streets, his mother informed him he would not be able to leave the village. This is a reference to police barricading small towns and villages around Gwangju to prevent movement. It wasn’t until later in life that Lee realized it was because of the May 18 Democratization Movement, when many people just a short distance away were met with a different reality than his own. The unconsciousness of political events as a child plays into the exhibition, as themes regarding espionage, communism, and war become apparent throughout. There are three installations throughout the exhibition that convey the general theme of May 18, 1980 Weather: Fine (Floor One), The Girl Who Reads (Floor Two), and Rising Roots (Floor Three).

The entire exhibition was very well thought-out and the work very much told the story of Lee’s experience in Gwangju and his hometown. This powerful instillation very much represents the realities and memory of 5.18. The chilling sounds of the fans, coupled with Kim Choo-Ja’s powerful rendition of 꽃잎 (petal) and neon strobe lights very much highlight the harsh realities of the 1980s in Gwangju, not just during the month of May 1980 but also coming to terms with pain and traumas, that followed.