Imagined Encounters: Bang and Lee in Dar / Patterns of Exchange

Bang & Lee in Dar: Imagined Encounters was supported with funding from the Korea Foundation.

We all imagine encounters because we dream of a future where we will meet in person one day. 우리는 모두 만남을 상상한다. 왜냐하면 우리는 언젠가 우리가 직접 만날 미래를 꿈꾸기 때문이다.

Sisi sote tunafikiria kukutana kwa sababu tuna shauku yakuja kuonana ana kwa ana siku moja.

—Bang & Lee

Bang & Lee, 2012, Sketch for installation of Friendship is Transparent, a solo exhibition at Insa Art Space, Seoul, South Korea

Welcome ~ 환영합니다 ~ Karibuni!

—Rebecca Yeong Ae Corey Director, Nafasi Art Space

I remember the first time I saw images of Bang and Lee’s work in March 2019.

Sitting at my desk in Dar, hundreds of miles from Seoul, I noticed the scale of ambition and attention to detail of their art, the use of space and light, text and texture. The artists make visible the exploration of complex questions and concerns around technology, digital space, and human interaction.

Almost two years later, we finally met Bang and Lee via video call. The differences in local realities between Seoul and Dar were stark. Besides a six hour time difference, Korea was still experiencing winter weather and social distancing restrictions due to Covid-19. In Dar, the heat and humidity were heavy and despite surges in illnesses, no restrictions were introduced and people continued to go about their daily lives, taking individual precautions as they could. Life during the pandemic had not been easy for either side, but the experiences had been quite different.

Perhaps the benefits of intercultural exchange and dialogue are intrinsic and require no further proof of value. However, beyond taking stock of our cultural differences and similarities, and finding these interesting in and of themselves, there’s a need for a deeper engagement with parallel histories, material influences, and conceptual paradigms that differentiate human experience across space and time. Neither art nor life occur in a vacuum, and a strange performance it is indeed when cultural work is divorced from context. Especially in the midst of a global health crisis, whose various political, economic, and social dimensions exposed the fragility of human life and civilization, we wondered how an artistic dialogue could even happen.

When Bang and Lee told us about their current project, Artist Stone, which uses a 3D printer to create ceramic sculptures, we were intrigued by the juxtaposition of a familiar, organic material used in a highly innovative and future-oriented technology. It seemed to represent the paradox of the moment — illustrative of our changing relationship with technology and the natural world. On a Zoom call, Jun mentioned that a pattern can be a concept or a symbol of an idea or concept. This was

the new idea that catalyzed the deeper connection we were hoping for, and shaped the collaborative exchange and workshop that followed.

Two major threads emerged from our many conversations and calls to explore how this project could be shaped. The first was to investigate how the patterns, designs, and shapes artists see and express say about the underlying symbols, concepts, and culturally specific meanings that shape our identities and understandings of the world. The second was to examine how international collaboration looks during a pandemic. To what extent does technology make the attempts to connect stronger and at what point does it pull us apart? What can be gained and what is lost in virtual exchange and collaboration?

When Bang and Lee originally shared a proposal to Nafasi for their residency and exchange, they wrote, “Our approach is focused around the discovery in making. Our art projects are dialogues, the conversations in which we share ideas and lives and create collaboratively”. Though Bang and Lee did not ultimately appear in person in Dar es Salaam, the exchange revealed that infinite discoveries are possible when the processes of making art are nurtured.

Acknowledgements This project marked significant new endeavors for Nafasi. It was our first time sharing an open call for both artists and curators, and incorporating curatorial research and collaboration with artists into a workshop and exhibition. We were able to shoot a short creative documentary film of the project that seeks to engage new and different audiences for the project beyond those who were able to participate and attend in person. And finally, this publication represents a new journey for Nafasi as we have rarely published exhibition booklets or catalogues that are so comprehensive and detailed. We are so grateful for the opportunities this project has created.

We would like to thank Kristina Dziedzic Wright for proposing this project and shaping it from the beginning through her interest in creating a bridge between Asian and African art practitioners. We would like to thank the Korea Foundation for their support of the project and understanding as it was postponed and changed through multiple iterations due to the uncertainty and challenges of the pandemic. We’d like to thank Nickson Jeremia, our graphic designer, and Walt Mzengi and Nicholas Calvin, the filmmakers, for creating works of art that help tell the story of this exchange. We thank the members of the Nafasi Academy Curatorial Practice cohort for their hard work in producing the exhibition, and the artists for their thoughtful engagement throughout the collaboration. We thank Nathalie from the Korean Total Museum of Contemporary Art and the Team Hashtag curators for their contributions to the programme, sharing their ideas, experiences, and insights into Korean arts and culture. And of course, last but not least, we thank Bang and Lee for their generosity in sharing their practice and work with us to present Korean art for the first time at Nafasi Art Space, and inspiring us to think more deeply about the patterns of exchange around us.

Long Journeys and the Power of Imagination —Kristina Dziedzic Wright

One of the most rewarding things about working with contemporary artists is the dialogue that occurs during the curatorial process.

While there is always a metaphoric dialogue in developing any type of art exhibition, irrespective of genre or time period, there is nothing quite like actual conversations with living artists and the shared experience of making meaning together through these discussions.

I first met Jayoung Bang and Yunjun Lee (who collectively practice as Bang & Lee) in 2014 when I was writing a paper about the Mediacity Seoul biennale for the College Art Association annual conference. I was referencing one of their works, Revision History X, that had been included in the 2012 biennale, but I did not have a good photograph to use in my presentation and contacted the artists through their website. From this initial correspondence, they invited me to their solo exhibition at Alternative Space LOOP in Seoul titled Friendship is Universal, which is where I met them in person for the first time. I have been in contact with them and following their work ever since.

Many curators and art critics describe Bang & Lee as ‘multimedia’ or ‘new media’ artists and while much of their work does utilise technological media, I think of them as primarily conceptual artists. The first piece of theirs that I had encountered, Revision History X, was included in a biennale dedicated to media art and promoting Seoul as an epicentre of technological innovations. However, Revision History X itself consists of a series of printed sheets of paper, one of the most analogue forms of art media. Each sheet of paper shows how Google’s user agreement information has changed over the years with the text that appears being all that remained from the previous year’s policy (Figure 1). The amount of white space is astonishing and as blank as most users’ recollection of the policies to which they automatically click ‘agree’, usually without ever reading the information.

One of Bang & Lee’s most exhibited installations, Transparent Study, is quite obviously a multimedia installation (Figures 2 and 3). Comfortable, leather armchairs invite visitors to sit and engage with the artwork as if from the comfort of their own living room. Various projections on the walls and in screens throughout the space show mosaics created from data mining of images

Figure 1: Bang & Lee, 2012, Revision History X . Photograph courtesy of the artists. in the public domain and incorporate a live feed from different cameras situated within the installation, thus, making the visitor-spectator a participant in the space. While Transparent Study utilises complex technology, the concepts behind the installation are what drive the piece in my view, rather than the ‘medium being the message’ as is the case with much media-based artwork.1 Through the portrayal of a private study with the artists’ own personal memories and experiences metaphorically presented in a public way, Transparent Study juxtaposes the domestic and public spheres to interrogate the erosion of personal privacy in today’s information age. Richly layered with numerous literary and socio-historical references, Transparent Study invites multiple interpretations, asks more questions than it proposes answers, and encourages visitor-participants to create their own narratives.

Bang & Lee’s solo exhibition at Nafasi Art Space was developed to create transcultural exchange between South Korea and Tanzania through contemporary art and firsthand encounters between artists sharing their ideas, materials and practices. My initial curatorial concept was to examine the new forms of cultural contact that are arising as Asian governments and corporations increasingly invest in infrastructure in African countries and expand business ventures across the continent. With funding from the Korea Foundation, the artists and I were to spend a month at Nafasi to conduct open stu-

Figure 2: Bang & Lee, 2020, Transparent Study. Photograph © 2020 #Transparent Study. dio sessions, get to know the artists working there, explore the cultural and artistic environs of Dar and create a site-specific installation based on our research about Asia-Africa connections and firsthand experiences in Tanzania.

We were preparing for this journey as the COVID-19 pandemic began, so we postponed the project until November 2020 with the intent to complete it by the end of the year. At that point, it was difficult for me to conceive of how to implement the project without being at Nafasi in person with Bang & Lee, as the artists have never been anywhere in Africa before. (I myself have worked intermittently in Kenya for the past twenty years, but have only visited Tanzania twice with just one week in Dar a few years ago.) I had developed the curatorial concept of the project on the premise of Bang & Lee’s firsthand experiences in a new place that is aesthetically and culturally quite different from anywhere they have previously worked. Once it became obvious that we would not be able to travel to Dar at all in the foreseeable

Figure 3: Bang & Lee, 2014, Sketch for Transparent Study installation.

Photograph courtesy of the artists.

future, we began to discuss alternative formats with Nafasi’s director and developed a series of virtual collaborative workshops based on Bang & Lee’s ongoing Artist Stone project. Artist Stone recreates various patterns from historical sources in Korea using a 3D ceramic printer that Bang & Lee built.

Seven Tanzanian artists were selected to participate in the workshops from an open call issued by Nafasi along with participants in Nafasi’s Curatorial Academy, members of the curatorial group TeamHashtag based in Gwangju, South Korea and Nathalie Shin, Chief Curator at the Total Museum of Art in Seoul. Taking Bang & Lee’s 3D ceramic printing patterns as a point of departure, the workshops investigated links, parallels, and contrasts in Tanzanian and Korean design, patterns, and visual cultures. These conversations provided an opportunity to explore historical and contemporary symbols, concepts, and systems that have shaped both African and Asian societies. As Bang & Lee explained, ‘Whenever

we see patterns repeated in the history of humanity, we realize how profoundly connected we are, even though we are far apart’. The artists in Tanzania created new works in response to the online conversations for a related exhibition at Nafasi juxtaposed with Bang & Lee’s solo exhibition.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has brought unexpected challenges, it is more important than ever for people around the world to connect with one another even if that cannot be in person. Korea Foundation programmes and support of projects like Imagined Encounters are important ways of bringing people together through the arts and culture.

Long journeys require not only stamina, but also imagination to envision the possibilities at the other end that make the arduous process worthwhile. The world has embarked on a long journey with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic and no one can say when—or if—it will end. Certainly there will never be a return to the pre-pandemic ‘normal’ that preceded the global crisis, as much about this norm is what has led to our current predicament. Above all else, imagination, ingenuity and empathy are what the world needs to navigate this long journey. As the naturalist John Muir once said, ‘the power of imagination makes us infinite’.2 Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, Marshall McLuhan (McGraw-Hill, 1964) John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John Muir (1938), editor Linnie Marsh Wolfe (University of Wisconsin Press, 1979).

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Bang & Lee in Dar: Imagined Encounters installation view of exhibition at Nafasi.

Seeking patterns is more than searching for information.

It’s similar to understanding how knowledge is created. 패턴을 찾는 것은 정보를 찾는 것 이상이다. 이것은 지식이 어떻게 만들어지는지 이해하는 것과 유사하다.

Kudadisi vitu vinavyo jirudia ni zaidi ya kupata taarifa.

Ni sawa nakuangalia maarifa yanavyo undwa.

—Bang & Lee

Bang & Lee, 2021, Drawings of patterns for Artist Stone, DIY 3D ceramic printing project.

Photograph courtesy of the artists.

CURATORIAL STATEMENT

Bang & Lee in Dar: Imagined Encounters Bang & Lee is a Korean arts collective based in Seoul. Their projects include assemblage, interactive light sculptures, computer-generated montage and large-scale installations to explore various aspects of contemporary life such as networked societies, effects of technology, and forms of collaboration and friendship. They conduct extensive research while developing their works and incorporate references to geopolitics, history, culture and literature into their immersive environments that engage visitors as active participants.

Bang & Lee in Dar: Imagined Encounters introduces visitors to their work through a selection of drawings, videos of their past installations and DIY 3D ceramic printer, and a video mosaic the artists created from posts on Nafasi’s YouTube channel and other clips that depict Tanzania.

Both the curatorial and artistic processes of this project have been dynamic and open-ended to create a transcultural dialogue. Despite the uncertainties of the future, we hope to continue this conversation.

—Kristina Dziedzic Wright

Bang & Lee, 2021, Still from Imagined Colour, Sound, and Smell video mosaic .

Imagined Colour, Sound, and Smell Unable to visit Tanzania in person, Bang & Lee viewed hundreds of video clips on YouTube that show Tanzanian culture, society and landscapes, including many on Nafasi Art Space’s channel. While watching these videos, they imagined the colours, sounds and smells of the places they could only view from afar. The artists compiled a source video from various clips and generated a database of images drawn from the public domain using a combination of Google products. Finally, they created a real-time video mosaic by replacing each pixel of the source video with an image from their database sorted by colour on a per second basis through an image recognition process they developed from open source code.

The video mosaic, thus, projects Bang & Lee’s imagined encounters. They describe the video mosaic as ‘similar to making a puzzle.

When someone looks at a piece of a puzzle, they see only a part. Similarly, each pixel image is just a mundane thing; it doesn’t look like it has a single profound meaning. But from a distance, you get the full picture.’ While watching the video mosaic, Nafasi visitors view familiar scenes projected back to them through a recursive system.

Bang & Lee in Dar: Imagined Encounters installation view of exhibition at Nafasi.

Bang & Lee, 2021, Still from Where is my territory? A 3D animation work-in-progress.

Photograph courtesy of the artists.

Bang & Lee, 2019, Sketch for Where is my territory?, an animation work-in-progress, exhibited in After Our Dear Country Failed group exhibition at Digital Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan.

Photograph courtesy of the artists.

Bang & Lee in Dar: Imagined Encounters installation view of exhibition at Nafasi.

Whenever we see patterns repeated in the history of humanity, we realise how profoundly connected we are, even though we are far apart. 인류의 역사에서 반복되는 패턴을 발견할 때마다 우리는 비록 멀리 떨어져 있지만, 우리가 얼마나 깊이 연결되어 있는지 깨닫게 된다.

Wakati wowote tunapo ona matukio yakufanana yakijirudia katika historia ya mwanadamu, tunatambua ni kwa namna gani tumeungana kwa pamoja japo kuwa tupo mbali mbali.

—Bang & Lee

CURATORIAL STATEMENT

Imagined Encounters: Patterns of Exchange Technology continues to amplify access to cultural productions from anywhere in the world. In Tanzania, we are exposed to different aspects of Korean culture from the dramatic soap opera plot twists that glue us to our screens to second hand clothing that colour our local markets. The presence of these productions in Tanzania not only provide a glimpse into the history and cultural aesthetics of Korean culture but also invite us to draw similarities and contrasts.

Primarily conducted on Zoom, Imagined Encounters is a result of a series of workshops exploring technology, history, pattern-making and storytelling cross-culturally between Tanzania and Korea. Our sessions were rich exchanges of knowledge, artistic and curatorial production.

Our exchange has manifested into paintings, installations & films - all of which carry the commonalities of our coexistence & interpretations of our relationships with the many patterns found in the universe around us.

We share the same roof.

We are connected under the same galaxy.

The artists in this collaborative exhibition: Baraka Leo, Rebecca Yeong Ae Corey, Ibrahim Jonathan, Sabi John, Hedwiga Medard, Gano & Ismir Ra actively explore and experiment with the patterns weaving through our realities - rearranging them and re imagining them for each of us - to find our own meaning.

—Joyous Pierce Pius Matunge Shaquille Kessi Bernard Ntahondi

Imagined Encounters collaborative workshop at Nafasi.

Imagined Encounters collaborative exhibition at Nafasi.

Sabi John Sabi John is a visual artist, abstract painter and a sculptor based in Tanzania. She started sketching and painting at a young age. She’s mostly inspired by contemporary arts and creating free-form geometric shapes and patterns influenced by her culture. She has taken part in various exhibitions such as A bad idea in December 2019 at Nafasi Art Space.

JAMAA, 2021, Life-size hand sculpture, plaster and mesh.

JAMAA depicts the Tanzanian spirit of “Ujamaa” (Socialism). Carved details are a combination of Tanzanian patterns from Zanzibari women known as “Henna” and Korean patterns conveying regionalism between Northerners and Southerns, and between Southern-easterners and Southern-westerners in terms of customs and personality characteristics. Regionalism dates back to the Kingdom of Kojuryo in South Korea.

Ismir Ra Ismir Ra is a contemporary, multidisciplinary artist working in Tanzania.

He began practicing art at an early age, and through observation of the world around him, he began sketching and experimenting with colours and fashion. In 2020, he enrolled in the first edition of the Nafasi Academy, run by Nafasi Art Space in Dar-es-Salaam, where he participated in various artistic workshops and collaborated with other young artists.

Through his practice, he explores his historical context and attempts to offer a uniquely African perspective on society and culture. While his work is varied, he mainly employs paint and fabric to create his pieces.

Pots and Ceramics, 2021, Acrylic on packing foam installation.

For many centuries, ceramics have been popular in both Asia and Africa. Purposefully designed, patterned, written on and/or marked, they have been used for rituals, worship and storage amongst many other functions. Currently, there seems to be a small production and use of ceramic pots in urban Africa while in Asia, the design and production of ceramics is still a trend. Until today, ceramics exist because of their beautiful shapes and attractive designs on them.

Rebecca Yeong Ae Corey Rebecca Yeong Ae Corey is an arts practitioner interested in justice, imagination, and building alternate sites of power and community. She has worked in installation, photography, writing, and film. She is also the co-director and producer of a feature documentary about Tanzanian zilipendwa music called ‘Wahenga’ (The Ancestors) which was released in 2018.

Anthem, 2021, video installation, 7:30.

I was born in Taegu, South Korea and given the name, LEE Yeong Ae. Five months later brought to the United States, where I was named again by my adoptive family, Rebecca Elizabeth Yeong Ae Corey.

I would spend the next 22 years in the US before moving to Tanzania where I have lived since 2012. For many years I have not felt connected to my Korean heritage and know very little about the culture. Since living in Tanzania, I’ve often bought Korean and Asian clothes from secondhand markets, though I rarely wear them.

I’ve always wondered, someday will I feel at home enough in my own skin to be comfortable in these clothes, adorned by patterns that are foreign to my memory, but inseparable from my past?

Anthem explores these feelings, and the experience of searching for identity, belonging, and acceptance, if not from others then perhaps from within.

Baraka Leo Baraka Leo is an out of the box creative artist born in Tanzania.He works with installations and mainly uses recycled materials for his art because he believes in giving new life and purpose to the old and forgotten. He draws his influences from life experiences,nature and people around him. He is currently enrolled at the Nafasi Curatorial Academy.

Worlds Collide, 2021, Acrylic, wood, fabric, lights, mesh and plexiglass.

Communication is an integral part of the human experience that helps us link with one another. Due to the pandemic, we have had to adapt to other ways of connecting with each other. This piece is a secret encoded message made using the night sky for people all over the world.

Lembulisi Gwalugano Ayubu Mwakatobe (Gano) Lembulisi Gwalugano Ayubu Mwakatobe (Gano Artist) is self taught and has participated in various art courses, workshops and residences within and outside Tanzania. His latest art event is WASEMAJE Art Exhibition organised jointly by The Embassies of Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland on 17th October 2020. He works with acrylics, watercolours, pastels, charcoal, tempera and paper crafts media. He is also an art instructor for children and young people. Gano Artist is always seeking new horizons for engaging his art skills to share, showcase and build connections.

Step Marks, 2021, acrylic on canvas.

We are moving as a society. Generations come and go. So it is for the present generation to preserve its footprints for future generations. Most of Bang & Lee’s work portrays symbolism. Symbols convey messages of communities past and present, and are a good way to preserve culture and prehistoric art.

Hedwiga Medard Hedwiga Medard Tairo is a visual artist born in 1993 in Kilimanjaro region, Tanzania. She uses watercolours on paper, acrylic paint on canvas and practices graffiti on walls. In 2020 she was part of Nafasi Academy where she learned the history of art in Tanzania, research and concept development, activism and public art. She has taken part in various exhibitions including Each for Equal (Iranian cultural center, 2020), Inner visions (National Museum of Tanzania, 2020), and Women Express graffiti exhibition (Gymkhana sports grounds, 2021). Currently, her artwork explores ideas related to mental health and associated disorders, an idea inspired by a close relative of hers with autism, as well as concepts that affect day to day lives of people in society.

Hybrid, 2021, mixed media, acrylic, fabric and beads on canvas.

As a Tanzanian who has grown fond of Korean dramas, I admire how the women in ancient times dress up in fine attire. This piece imagines a princess born as the result of a secret love affair between an ancient Korean king and a Tanzanian woman. The painting invites viewers to travel together through time and combine our cultural differences.

Ibrahim A. Jonathan Ibrahim Jonathan grew up on Keko Mwanga Street in the Temeke district of Dar es Salaam where both the street and school life became adventures to learn. He did his O-level studies at Mwangaza in physics, geography and mathematics, and landscape architecture for his bachelor’s degree. The combination of science and art provides an opportunity to learn and acquire new skills. He believes that art has meaning not just from its aesthetics, but also through every small detail it contains.

In architecture studies, he has learned that every line has a meaning.

Life of a Makonde Woman, 2021, paint, bloodwood, seashell, string & fabric installation.

During the 1700’s, the Makonde of Southern Tanzania sold sculpture and artwork to Arabs. In the 1970’s, modern Makonde art was internationally recognized as contemporary art of Africa. Different Makonde groups and languages have developed over time but they all share a common origin and culture. Representing the matrilineal family, every detail in this piece describes the history of Makonde male warriors and the circle of life of Makonde women, from birth and thereafter.