Exhibition Information

Oan Kim, Brigitte Bouillot The Man Who Paints Water Drops
2020 79min
(Source = MMCA)

Yang Young-hi Soup and Ideology
2021 118min
(Source = MMCA)

Kim Se-in The Apartment with Two Women
2021 144min
(Source = MMCA)

			According to last year’s data from Statistics Korea, the percentage of one-person households in our society has reached 33.4% of all households. Not only that, following the transition from large families of grandparents, parents, and children spanning generations, to nuclear families consisting of only parents and children, forms of family composition are also becoming more diverse including one-person households, childless couples, and same-sex couples. As expectations and values regarding family continue to change along with societal changes, different expectations and desires collide even within family members. The concept of family centered on blood relation is also changing, and various forms of family are gradually spreading. 2023 Intermission introduces the different perspectives of contemporary directors on family through six recently produced independent films.

Family in the Bubble traces the lives of a couple that accumulated wealth during the real estate bubble but ran into economic hardship during the IMF crisis, from the perspective of their daughter who is the film’s director. Her parents' prime when they were young and their present where they are still dreaming of a comeback, form a stark contrast. The director's role who now acts as a guardian or representative to her parents transcends the history of a family, captivatingly depicting the relationship between the elderly parents and adult child in conjunction with 'real estate', a sensitive keyword in Korean society.

The Man Who Paints Water Drops is a documentary in which artist Oan Kim, together with fellow artist and documentary filmmaker Brigitte Bouillot, observed the life of his father and prominent artist Kim Tschang-Yeul. The Scenery of the old painter’s studio who has only been painting ‘water drops’ for decades, his image as a grandfather spending time with his young grandchildren, the opening ceremony of an art museum named after him, and an episode where he swims are placidly put together. There are no turns or incidents of note. There is no love-hate relationship or conflict between father and son. Only calm words from a human being to another, one artist to another.

The Apartment with Two Women, features a mother, Su-Kyung, and her daughter, Yi-Jung, who are constantly bickering. Contrary to the stereotype of mother and daughter who are affectionate and special to each other, the mother-daughter relationship in reality is complicated. So too is the mother-daughter relationship in the film far from affectionate. The mother lacks the mental margin to carefully look after her daughter, and the daughter belatedly realizes that she grew up without receiving proper care from her mother. Ironically, Yi-Jung, who was a child that did not receive adequate care, is unable to become independent from her mother long after reaching adulthood. The fact that Yi-Jung's mother Su-Kyung’s focus on her own desires as a woman seems unfamiliar, is not unrelated to the social atmosphere that views women with children revealing their ‘womanly desires’ as disturbing.

Soup and Ideology depicts the process of a Korean-Japanese mother, her daughter, and her Japanese son-in-law who will be their new family, becoming ‘family members’ that dine together through ‘whole chicken soup’. The story of the family that encompass the Japanese colonial rule, the tragic history of the Jeju April 3 Incident, migration to Japan and joining the pro-North Korean residents' league in Japan, is closely intertwined with the tragedies and ideological confrontations of Korea’s modern history. The mother with a degrading memory cooks and serves warm chicken soup for her Japanese son-in-law, whom she had insisted she could never accept, thus welcoming him as a new family member.

The Poet and the Boy is about the emotional changes that Taek-Gi, a poet living in Jeju with his wife, comes to experience when he meets Se-Yoon, a young man who is making a living whilst nursing for his father. His wife, who staunchly makes a living by running a specialty store, cares for and supports the poet so that he can live as a poet. Meanwhile, the poet develops inexplicable feelings for Se-Yoon, who has to act as a caretaker at an age when he should be cared for, and the two gradually become closer. Through the emotions of a young man who feels awkward about receiving favor from a stranger that isn’t his family and the poet that keeps inclining towards him, and the image of the wife who watches over the relationship between these two, we are led to reconsider 'care' and 'support' that is one of the functions of 'family'.

Lastly, the documentary Grown Up that traces the six-month journey of older sister Hyeyeong after her decision to live with her younger sister Hye-Jeong, who was in a Disabled facility, makes us ponder what kind of support our society should provide for them. In order for Hye-Jeong to live outside the facility, she needs the help of not only her older sister Hyeyeong, but also Hyeyeong's friends and many others. It shows that it is the role of society to create institutional devices to prevent individuals from having to bear too much burden just for being family.

Family is the closest and most intimate of communities, yet it is also a relationship that is the most difficult and heavy. They may be people who best understand each other, but it can also be a relationship that leaves the largest and most painful wounds. If we look at each family member, not only as various roles within the family, such as mother, father, daughter, son, husband, wife, older sister, older brother, younger brother, daughter-in-law, son-in-law, etc., but also as individuals with a growing and changing mind and respected each other, the weight of family will become a little lighter, and the unit of family will be able to expand beyond blood relations into a wider community.


(Source = MMCA)