작업 소개

코로나19로 인해 휴관 중 막을 내린 일어나 올라가 임동식 전시의 아티스트 인터뷰 영상입니다. 서울시립미술관 서소문 본관에 설치된 작품들을 영상으로 만나볼 수 있으며, 임동식 작가가 직접 관객과 만나지 못한 작품들을 하나씩 소개합니다. 온라인을 통해 전시에 대한 아쉬움을 조금이나마 달래고자 하는 마음이 담겨 있습니다.

This is an artist interview video from the Rise Up, Rim Dong Sik exhibition, which concluded during the temporary closure due to COVID-19. Through this video, viewers can explore Rim Dong Sik’s works installed at the Seoul Museum of Art’s Seosomun Main Hall. Rim Dong Sik himself introduces each piece, providing insights into the works that could not be directly presented to visitors. The video aims to alleviate the disappointment of not experiencing the exhibition in person.

서울시립미술관은 2020년 8월 19일부터 《일어나 올라가 임동식》 展을 서소문 본관 1층 전시실에서 개최한다. 《일어나 올라가 임동식》 展은 순수 자연에 대한 강렬한 사랑을 바탕으로 예술 세계를 펼쳐온 한국 자연 미술가 임동식(1945~)의 개인전이다. 2018년부터 임동식은 4차에 걸쳐 서울시립 미술 아카이브(2021년 12월 개관 예정)를 위해 서울시 문화본부에 본인의 예술기록 자원을 기증한 바 있다. 이에 서울시립미술관과 서울시 문화본부는 협업을 통해 1970년대에서 2000년대에 이르는 작가의 예술기록 자원을 전시로 풀어내어, 자연, 삶, 예술의 통합이라는 관점에서 평생 끈질긴 퍼포머이자 꼼꼼한 아키비스트로서의 면모를 보여 온 작가를 재평가하는 계기를 마련하였다. 이번 전시는 아카이브와 관련된 본격적인 연구의 첫발을 내딛는 동시에 자연에 쉼 없이 열정적으로 다가가는 과정을 다성적 짜임새를 지닌 예술로 승화시킨 작가 임동식의 방식을 통합적으로 목도할 기회가 될 것이다. 더불어 이와 같은 시도가 사유 예술가로 불리길 희망하는 임동식에 대한 추가적인 연구로 이어지고, 향후 서울시립 미술 아카이브에서 전개될 프로젝트에 많은 이들이 관심을 갖는 계기가 되길 바란다.

출처 : 서울시립미술관 홈페이지 전시소개글

Wongol Village is a rural village. There was a friend of mine of the same age who I got to know of around 9 or 10 years after living in the village.　While organizing the Art and Village project I began to appreciate forms of agriculture in which I gained a new perception through living together with the neighbors. You know that agriculture began in the Neolithic age. We say that the Neolithic Age. coincided with the agricultural revolution Going further back from this age, I got to know him, my friend, who does a hunter-gatherer form of lifestyle.　He is a friend who is the same age as me, born in the year 1945 when Korea achieved its independence. However, he went to farming and nature, who ran an orchard instead of continuing on to school education after elementary school.

When he had time, he went around with friends, carrying wood from forests with Jigae (a back carrier), picking wild berries, wrestling, swimming, taking out new eggs and so on. In retrospect, I think that he was a person who had lived such a beautiful life as a part of nature, like a poem. Compared to him, I was a person who had many books close and became a member of the world of knowledge with pleasure of writing. So, myself, who went out to join the intellectual world, met this friend, who sang, felt, and experienced the beauty of nature as if he were a part of nature since childhood.　By meeting a friend who penetrated nature with ‘ Shinsik (身識, body-consciousness),’　I gave a name for him: a Nature artist. I thought that this kind of person was truly a nature artist. I said that.

Reflecting on the growth of my friend, the various professions that he accumulated, and all other things, I placed my friend on the left side of the picture plane and me on the right side of it. I painted the changing of time that made the four seasons, and the shifts of childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age. It became a painting with the title, Nature Artist and Painter.　So, in conclusion, this painting is not intended to show what type of person I am by comparing myself with this friend. The painting is made to admire Nature Art as well as my friend Woo Pyeong-Nam, who carries Ttongjanggun and Ojumjanggun (containers for carrying manure and urine as fertilizer) and climbs mountains to cut grass and trees and carries wood with Jigae (back carrier) from his childhood.