In the work "Greeting", 2023, the old publications of the Kunstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral, which now span 30 years of history, are stacked from the floor like a spiral staircase into the room. Each year is summarized under a theme in a publication. Like this one, the present one: Coexist. An archive of artists, their works, themes and stories. Above it, simple brown wrapping paper, an envelope, pink tape, a pink, wilted rose that Jungho Jung found when he moved into the studio, a wooden cigarette packet with a card with a Buddha head printed on it, a roll of collected receipts, Jungho Jung received as receipts for the payments he made in Germany, a throat lozenge, and the plastic figure of a cat - brought from South Korea - she has now climbed the Tower of Books, celebrating her triumph and rejoicing in her achievement.
While the installation was on display in the exhibition rooms of the Kunstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral in 2023, it will perhaps be shown in the final exhibition at the Mittelrhein-Museum in Koblenz in 2024 and then travel to South Korea, packed in a cardboard box.
In Jungho Jung's studio, the works that have been carefully packed are unpacked. Jungho will unpack at least the figure of the cat, as I know that it is important to him and that he has been expecting it for a long time...
Jungho Jung worked on new works in Bad Ems for the exhibition in the Off-Raum at Kunstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral. He used simple, discarded, collected or found materials. He bought only a few objects from a store for antiques and second hand goods on the banks of the River Lahn. He brought the cat with him from South Korea. In terms of content and increasingly through the objects used, Jungho Jung questions the use, value and temporality of art. Alongside this are the ideas of materiality and immateriality, as the work is conveyed within the publication through the conceptual ideas of the work, the photographs and an accompanying text.
With the collected and glued-together sweets, a role is created in which, in addition to the capital brought in, a cycle of "spending money" and "getting money" can be seen. The sweet is a reward and a distracting temptation, the cigarette box is a hiding place and shelter, a resting place. This status of "now", where the cat triumphantly stretches out its arms, will be covered in the coming period by further publications of the artist residency, by other artists, works and themes. In addition, the idea is also present that the cat detaches itself from the installation, reflects on and appreciates its own values and achievements and does not experience these through the listing of prizes, exhibitions and grants, but acts according to values.
Jungho Jung pursues a similar idea in "I remeber the stars at night". He combines discarded egg cartons to form shapes reminiscent of stars. The towering stars are supported like a crown by a female ceramic figure. The arrangement of egg cartons can be read like a starry sky. Stars that connect the earthly and the heavenly. Stars that can be seen here and now by me and at the same time in another place by another person. This connection of a "here" and "there", a "you" and "me", began with Jungho Jung, who was in Bad Ems one evening with other scholarship holders in the city, gazing into the clear sky and being reminded of his friends in the distance, connected by the stars.
Jungho Jung has strung small, glittering blue beads on a thin thread that stretches down from the stars. Found on a sidewalk in Bad Ems, they now fall down like a tear.
In Jungho Jung's studio, the works, which have been carefully wrapped, are unpacked. Jungho will unpack at least the figure of the cat, as I know that it is important to him and that he has been expecting it for a long time...
