In June 2023, KCC UK X Germany X France held an Open Call for art works under the theme of 'Ordinary World'. The submissions were judged by influential jurors from each country (Gina Buenfeld-Murley (UK), Maria Lund (France), Shi-Ne Oh (Germany)) to ensure that artistic perspectives from different countries were reflected in a balanced way, and five contemporary artists (Yang Ha, Inkyung Kwon, Jiyoon Park, Jungkyun Shin and Miguel Rozas Balboa) were selected. A total of 600 artists from all over the world applied, resulting in a fierce 120:1 competition.

The first installment of this Open Call exhibition was held at KCC Germany from September to November 2023. The next one will be on display at KCC UK from February 20 to April 13 2024 and then, the final exhibition will take place at KCC France later in the year.

Ordinary World

‘Ordinary World’ is a response to the ongoing global disasters that have built across the post-pandemic world. In an era when disasters are steadily becoming more common due to the accumulation of continuous crises, the exhibition discusses how the existing concept of normal and newly formed ordinary are combined. This merging of the two concepts allows people to better understand how to address the emergence of the new norm. It can also provide insights into how to cope with and manage disasters more sustainably. With a world where disasters are commonplace, the exhibition explores what direction we can take with art.

Participating Artists

Yang Ha works on reconstructing images on flat media after collecting contradictory images from history and religion. The tragedy between macro and personal narratives is visualised using infantile and clumsy metaphorical elements.

Inkyung Kwon constructs collages from antique books and paints with ink and acrylic to build a vague and unrealistic urban landscape that mixes heterogeneous dimensions such as the past and present, night and day, arithmetic and urban, indoor and outdoor.

JiYoon Park is an artist filmmaker who makes creative non-fiction cinema. Her films allow for ambiguities whilst exploring unique visual languages. She captures surreal and unfamiliar moments in our daily lives and recontextualises them to suggest unconventional ways of viewing the world.

Jungkyun Shin is a media artist who reveals anxiety in landscapes that we encounter on a daily basis. He creates a narrative that mixes reality and fiction by reviewing universal ideas prevalent in society and tracing back the paths through which they are formed.

Miguel Rozas Balboa is a Chilean-Belgian visual artist born in Chile currently living between Berlin and Brussels. His research mainly focuses on the relationship between politics, mass media and social minorities. With a strong socio-political dimension, his visual work is a personal response to historical and social events, unveiled globalization and the crisis of the neo-liberal model. His work invites us to look beyond the distraction of the flashy and to consider the world around us by discovering beauty and humanity in unusual places.

Exhibition Details

Title 2024 UK X France X Germany Open Call: Ordinary World

Date 20 February – 13 April 2024

Venue Korean Cultural Centre UK (KCCUK)

1-3 Strand, London WC2N 5BW [Entrance on Northumberland Avenue]