As part of the group exhibition Light shine glimmer — leak spill shimmer by Luuk Schröder, Lucy Cordes Engelman, and Bea Haut, the special screening WATER+BODY: 16mm Korean Experimental Cinema from the 1990s to Today will present eight works made on 16mm film by seven filmmakers: Lim Chang-jae, Lee Jang-wook, Jang Minyong, Jang Eunju, Onyou Oh, Yu Chae, Park Kyujae. Five of the films will be screened in 16mm.
The screening is free and open to the public.
The screening includes: - Over Me (Lim Chang-jae, 1996, B&W, Sound, 18', 16mm) Over Me is a film about the ghosts of memory which are trapped in the fragmented time of a woman, and the images of expressionless and lonely people which have been engraved in my memory. This was done through experimentation, by creating a labyrinth of images and meanings within the film. I constructed the movie by tracing the vestiges left by the spirit within that labyrinth. And what I felt was lacking in the construction of the movie, I filled in with my imagination […] My film, which ends with a sense of incompleteness, was constructed through mere imaginative speculation, of the fragmentary pieces of a puzzle that the spirit left behind […] This film is a requiem for all the working men and women who have died in support of labor rights. This requiem, however, is sung in order to be not disheartened. Filmmaker in attendance
- Echoed Silence (Lee Jang-wook, 1998, Color/B&W, Silent, 8', 16mm) This film is an experiment on editing, deconstructing and reconstructing, a game of collision between frames. As a narrative body disintegrates, it gradually becomes possible for viewers to pay attention to the phenomena of intra-frame intervals.
- The Dark Room (Jang Minyong, 2001, Color, Silent, 5', 16mm) "The Dark Room" is homage to a 16th century apparatus, camera obscura. I tried to create a uniquely cinematic sensory experience. The views of the Pacific Ocean could provide the powerful sense of moving water as mass and volume. Filmmaker in attendance
- The Moment (Jang Minyong, 2002, B&W, Silent, 5', 16mm) A depiction of the movements and physical characteristics of an infant. Through simplicity of technique, the film seeks a primacy of vision to match the innocence of its subject. Filmmaker in attendance
- Tide (Jang Eunju, 2007, B&W, Sound, 8', 16mm) Optically printed film made in the Space Cell do-it-yourself film lab. The mystery of the woman on the beach cannot be unraveled.
- Whispers in the Water (Onyou Oh, 2020, B&W, Sound, 9', 16mm transferred to digital) A woman who talks with dead people explores different dimensions of language through her memories that involve whispers and water. She learns, unlearns and relearns how to speak. At the end of her journey, she encounters an existence whose voice resembles hers and sees how a language emerges from her breath.
- The Lovesick Serpent (Yu Chae, 2022, Color, Sound, 9, 16mm transferred to digital) Tales of the lovesick serpent “Sangsabaem” is a Korean folklore about a protagonist who dies from the pain of unrequited love and turns into a snake to express their suppressed emotions to the object of affection.
- Study for Three Streams (work-in-progress) (Park Kyujae, 2023-, B&W, Silent, 5', 16mm transferred to digital) The film was shot in Hongjecheon in Seoul, Mokgamcheon in Gwangmyeong, and Gulpocheon in Incheon. It captures the impressions of three streams in three different cities. Each of the three streams intersects and overlaps with images of the filmmaker's own body. Filmmaker in attendance