In The Farrell Auditorium

As part of the annual Gateway Korea Foundation’s DanO Festival event, Soyang Park, associate professor of liberal arts and sciences, graduate studies at the Ontario College of Art & Design University, will speak about the minjung movement. Seeing is not neutral. To whom does the meaning of the art properly belong? This question was among those raised for the first time in postwar Korean art history by dissident art groups and artists who emerged in support of the popular democratization of the country in the 1980s called the minjung movement. Minjung means (the underprivileged) people, mass, or multitude. Forty years onward from these pivotal years of democratic transition, this talk will help the audience understand the root and development of Korean social realism in art and media, the spirit of which can also be found in the narratives and styles of acclaimed popular entertainment that went global: Parasite (2019) and Squid Game (2021).

Generous support provided by Art Bridges Foundation’s Access for All program.