B i o . eng

Born in South Korea, work in Paris

Ph.D in Art & Archeology, Paris-Sorbonne, Paris IV University

CEO of DEN Design Environment Network. France

Former director of Ars & Locus Institute, E.H.E.S.S., Paris

Former director of SUUM Art center, Seoul, London

Former director of the Ungno Lee museum, Seoul, Paris

Contact : arslocus@aol.fr

Aesthetics of my art / Archaeological hope

Light, wind, dew, moon and evening star… The important elements in my artistic universe. My art adventure began with a trip to Seou, to a royal garden in South Korea. I was a young archaeologist in the Faculty of Art and Archeology at the University of Paris IV – Paris Sorbonne.

 I was looking for beauty in visible things like flowers, decoration, colors and lines, but I discovered another form of beauty that goes beyond its limits of appearance during this trip to Seoul. The true permanent beauty was hidden in another invisible, subtle and abstract things. Like the wind which reveals the memory of a distant time in its course, this sudden light which traces the elusive pan on a part of the shadow, this dew which signifies tears of exile in this doomed life on earth far from heavenly paradise, this moon which takes our eyes towards the sky, reminding us of the passion of our heart and finally this evening star which indicates to us a place of rest at the end of the journey where there is peace.

I express the poetic side of the invisible journey from this definition and the abstraction of life in a geometric and itinerant structure in my painting. I work with the images of charcoals, trees and human body as the basic materials in my art, in various genre like paintings, installations and photographies. These three genres of art interest me in symbiosis with the experiences of my initiatory journey in France, Italy, Spain and the United States after a long search for my artistic identity for a few years in Asia, in China at first, consequently, in Japan and in South Korea. My works speak of a spiritual tension between life and death, a long process of the resurrection from the death, a kind of metamorphosis and mythical garden, an eternal exile en earth and a life that is summed up in being chaotic and absurd on a simple chair, which becomes not just symbolic as the social position of human being but also metaphorical as the confinement. Loneliness would be the peremptory title of this story, but my works reserve an auspicious surprise. A hope. The Beauty is not something visible, but rather invisible just like love and like this mysterious invisible path in the Korean garden. Alchemy takes place in this way through hope in my hands which give eternal light in my heart. – Eden Jung-Wook Park

Eden Jung-Wook Park

Expositions personnelles

2012    Arbre des miroirs, Château de Belleville, Gif-sur-Yvette

2012    Ouest d’Eden, Galerie CBL, Séoul, Corée du Sud

2017    Au bout du voyage, Galerie Etienne de Causans, Paris

2018    Adam & Eve, Adveniat, Paris

2019    Espoir, Galerie Esperluette, Chartres

2019    Paix, Hôtel Mercure Château Viguier du Roy, Figeac, France

2019    Exode / Exil, Maison oecuménique et artistique de Chartres, Chartres

2019    Exil, Adveniat, Paris

2020    Ame confinée, Espace Mompeza, Paris 

Expositions collectives

2000    Montagne renversée, Séoul Arts Center, Séoul, Corée du Sud

2004    Espace : Tension et Structure, CAMAC Art Center, Marnay-sur-Seine

2006    Le Spectre des jardins, Fondation Coubertin, Saint-Rémy-les-Chevreuse

Prix

2000 Grand Prix Goam, Séoul, Corée du Sud

2002 Grand Prix Goam Atelier, Séoul, Corée du Sud

Collections

Art Company Gallery, Seoul

Christian Duvernois Landscape/Studio, New York

Lippo Developement Co., Incheon, Hong Kong

Jean-François Deney & Associés, Paris

Communauté du Chemin Neuf, Chartres

Editions

« Nirvana », Nunbit Publishing Co. Seoul 2010

« La route vers Twin Peaks », West Sea Publishing Co., Seoul, 2009

« Une journee chaleureuse », West Sea Publishing Co., Seoul 2009

Eden Jung-Wook PARK ar Michel Bénard, lauréat de l’Académie Française

It is no coincidence that this remarkable exhibition is called « Confined mind”. It should be noted that all the works presented here were created during the period of confinement, which is also the symbol of a quest for freedom. Eden was director of various artistic institutes, Seoul, Paris and participated in numerous exhibitions, installations, particularly in France in Paris, Chartres, Figeac, Saint Rémy les Chevreuse, etc. An elegant way to foil the weight of fate, to alleviate the unnatural constraints imposed on us.

Abstract or figurative, the works are neat, refined, fragmented with interesting harmonious chromatic and geometric variations. We find there both a refined expression derived from cubism where we could think of Otto Freundlich among others, but also of constructivism or Dadaism, we come to think of the work Auguste Herbin. It is not impossible, however, that you will be surprised by an unusual aspect linked to the presence of very figurative works and beautiful invoices. No, don’t be surprised, because the abstract or the figurative belong to the same movement, to the same patterns of expression. The process is similar, because a portrait isn’t the result of the abstraction of an interpretation ?

No doubt you will discover there the wink addressed to Leonardo da Vinci through « La belle Ferronnière », but also a hagiographic sign by the representation of Saint-Joseph, beautiful virile figure who is not without me, bring to mind the outstanding work of Lucian Freud and also all the mystical and emotional sweetness of Saint-Antoine de Padoue and the almost ephebe or even hermaphrodite of Saint John the Baptist, inner seal of a deep faith, but discreet, here no exhibition , nor ostentation, just a breath of authenticity.

To conclude, because I don’t want to sound tedious, but you can also discover some small sculptures that may raise questions. Well no, these little works are very much in the spirit of confinement, withdrawal, emptiness, absence and severance with the most basic social ties. A black chair under a globe is already confinement, then you will find the presence of a mineral element placed on the chair, it is only charcoal painted white, symbol of the mirage of existence. However, this « white » charcoal evokes the renewal of life through the fire contained in the material. So here is the hope, the mutation, the alchemical metamorphosis.

Now is the time to let your free will admire the works of Eden Jung-Wook Park.

Michel Bénard.

Laureate of the French Academy (Académie Française).

Knight in the Order of Arts and Letters.

Etienne de Causans, galeriste, Galerie Etienne de Causans, Paris

The works of Eden Jung-Wook Park were published in 2009 under the title « Nirvana » by the Noonbit publishing house, which specializes in art book collections. Eden Jung-Wook Park won the Goam Atelier Prize, organized by the Ungno Lee Museum in Seoul in 2002. He participated in an international exhibition of the Coubertin Foundation as an artist and organizer in 2006, an event commemorating the 120th anniversary diplomatic relations between France and South Korea. His photos and paintings are recognized by several collectors, including Lippo Group in Hong Kong, Christian Duvernois Landscape / Studio in New York, Jean-François Deney & associates in Paris etc. He directed an Ars & Locus artistic project at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris between 2002 and 2012 and took over the Ars & Locus projects since 2017. His work was to find a new kind of synthetic art between landscape art, painting and photographic art. His theme was consistent in this sense since his first exhibition at the Seoul Arts Center in 2000. He collaborated with Jean-Charles Pigeau, Jean-Paul Agosti, Gianni Burattoni, Ian Hamilton Finlay in this Ars & Locus project, a work that gave two international exhibitions in the CAMAC center and in the Coubertin Foundation. The themes and the course of his work deserve recognition by its artistic originality and in particular by its synthetic nature, inspired by some spirituality of the art of Korean gardens and through its artistic interpretation of a singular relationship between man and space.