Jun-yong Moon’s exhibition just finished on the 23rd… “I don’t sell my work because I’m concerned about controversy”

On one side, five or six people, including one YouTuber, put up a picket that says ‘4.15 Unfair Election’ and make a noise through a loudspeaker, and on the other side, five or six visitors quietly wait in line to see the exhibition…

This is the scenery in front of the Geumsan Gallery exhibition hall in Hoehyeon-dong, Seoul, where the exhibition of the artist Moon Joon-yong, the son of President Moon Jae-in, is being held at 4 pm on the 23rd. There were not many protesters and spectators, but there was tension at the scene. When a woman in her 50s who came to the exhibition with her daughter could not stand the noise and said to the protesters, “Please be quiet,” the protesters said, “You must be quiet.”

Moon’s solo exhibition’Beyond Gaze, Between Somewhere’, which began on the 17th, ended at 6:30 pm on the 23rd. At 2:30 pm on the 23rd, there were almost no visitors other than the gallery staff, and after a sparse time passed, one or two people came in. An official at Geumsan Gallery said, “There were 90 people who visited the gallery yesterday, and today it is a more relaxed atmosphere. The average number of visitors who visited the exhibition after the 17th was about 30 people a day.”

None of the works were sold in this exhibition held for 7 days. Hwang Dal-seong, CEO of Geumsan Gallery, said, “A collector wanted to purchase one work during the exhibition,” he said. “But, because I was concerned about the situation in which the controversy got caught, I decided not to sell this exhibition at all.” In the end, it ended with’exhibition without sale’.

Earlier, Moon expressed his position through Facebook as controversy over holding an exhibition in the event of Corona 19 continued. Mr. Moon said, “I think art exhibitions are like some kind of party, but the exhibition is a place to sell works,” he said. He said he was trying to sell even one point while shedding blood. However, even that’one point’ was not sold in this exhibition.

An official in the art world said, “In the domestic art market, media art is not traded well in the original market. The production cost is high, but there are few collectors who own media works unless they are famous overseas artists.” It is often commissioned and produced for events rather than dragons,” he explained.

Meanwhile, the visitors lined up in front of the gallery on that day said, “I came because I was curious about the exhibition.” A woman in her 60s said, “I’m an art major, and I lived in the immediate vicinity and often visited this gallery.” Another woman who visited the exhibition hall with her daughter in her twenties said, “I am majoring in art. I have been wanting to see what a media art exhibition is like.”

Eunjoo Lee, Senior Reporter of Culture [email protected]