Methodology Calligraphy And Media Art

Hungarians in the Daegu Culture and Arts Center

In October 2015 I visited South Korea in connection with an exhibition. The visit dated back to 2014, when Interconnection, the Daegu-Budapest International Arts Exchange Exhibition opened in Budapest’s Korean Cultural Centre. Members of the Daegu Fine Arts Association (DFAA) and the Hungarian Hussart arts group participated. The connection between the two came about during an international project held in Germany on the initiative of painter An Eunji and graphic artist CsongorHorváth. AnEunji is a member of the DFAA, for which he undertakes project coordination and management tasks. He speaks German and is able to communicate to an extent in English, both of which were useful for developing the project. The DFAA was established in 1962 to represent the arts organisations of Daegu city. Its activities include Korean painting, sculpture, media arts and design, and there are currents reflecting the influence of western arts, traditional handicrafts and its modern forms, as well as calligraphy and ‘literary painting’.

The 2014 September exhibition in Budapest featured works by ten members of the Hussart group and eighty members of the Korean association. A number of Korean artists flew to Hungary, bringing the works. The majority of the Hungarian painters, sculptors and media artists were of the young generation. The differing artistic perspectives of the two associations highlighted the significant – mainly cultural – differences between the two countries. Thus the exhibition showed, side by side, how the works reflected different identities, ideologies and ways of thinking. Those of the Hungarians were characterised by a contemporary way of seeing. The name Hussart (deriving from hussar) signifies galloping forward, embracing new, foreign impressions and adapting them at home, new elements and styles, fusing perspectives, while the speciality of the Korean artists is a rather traditional concept (for example with calligraphy) and its western interpretation. Nevertheless it all functioned as a dialogue, a discourse between the two cultures and two types of art. The second stage was the Interconnection 2exhibition, staged in Daegu in October 2015, of which I was the Hungarian curator.

South Korea reflects a mixture of ancient culture and the modern world. Regarding the arts, we cannot speak of a linear chronology, which shows that the technique, as well as the development of technical media, cannot be equated in parallel with the traditional and contemporary genres of Korean arts. Calligraphy and its combination with expressive means, as well as ‘western-type art’, represent as much ways of expression in the arts as do, for example, media arts.