Art Sonje Center in collaboration with Le Cube – independent art room is pleased to present the exhibition Tired Palm Trees from July 9 to August 4, 2024 at The Ground gallery space on the first floor with the artists Victor Cruz & Hugo Portillo, Regula Dettwiler, Jongwan Jang, Seif Kousmate, Edith Payer, Mi Jung Shin, Katrin Ströbel and Roswitha Weingrill,curated by Markus Waitschacher and Elisabeth Piskernik.
Deeply invested in climate change and the ecological environment, Art Sonje Center has explored the feasibility of action as an art museum to expand sustainable living conditions. This exhibition is part of the museum’s 2024 program, which seeks to find new possibilities in the midst of the planet’s climate crisis under three keywords: “Transversality, Time, and Possibility.”
Despite its title, Tired Palm Trees is not an exhibition about palm trees, but rather an exhibition that borrows many symbolic images implied by palm trees. It explores the impact of human desires on climate change and the social phenomena derived from it, such as habitat encroachment and migration due to political power structures and the appropriation of nature through artifacts within a political, social, and/or historical context. Highly symbolic plants like palm trees have long been utilized as political tools on many levels. For example, houses and cities are intentionally decorated with plants to cover up something or to greenwash. In this exhibition, palm trees emerge as objects that are not only tired of the colonialist attitudes and gaze of humans but also the constant misinterpretation and misuse of their habitats that plants have had to endure throughout human history. Plants are symbols and witnesses to colonial practices, which for centuries have arbitrarily displaced habitats, “scientifically” categorized and exploited species, and led to the death of both humans and plants. Plants carry this history, even if we humans want to deny it.
The exhibition also examines the human desire to enjoy only the aesthetic and psychological benefits of nature by artificially recreating natural elements in manmade environments. Urbanization and technological advances—and attempts to integrate nature into our daily lives while ignoring the complexity of real ecosystems—are driven by political power structures that prioritize economic growth and resource extraction, leading to the overexploitation of resources and ecosystem destruction; the ever-increasing number of natural disasters forebodes the future of palm trees and humanity. As global warming becomes more extreme, palm trees will be able to grow anywhere in the future, but their natural habitats are increasingly threatened by climate change.
What all the contributions to Tired Palm Trees have in common is that their plants are suffering and tired. Symptomatic of the tiredness of a society that cannot find rest even in the soundest sleep, this exhibition aims to form an empathetic view of climate change and the environment by anthropomorphizing them as symbolic trespassers of borders and migratory subjects through the works of eight artists who address some of the many social phenomena surrounding plants.
Sponsored by the Austrian Embassy in Seoul, the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs and the Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport and organized in collaboration with Le Cube – independent art room, this is the third edition of the exhibition, which was previously held at Pavelhaus, Austria (2019) and at Le Cube – independent art room, Morocco (2022). Art Sonje Center has invited six artists who participated in the previous exhibitions, as well as Korean artists Mi Jung Shin and Jongwan Jang, to expand the symbolic meaning of palm trees from multiple perspectives.
Documentation:
TiredPalmTrees_EN
Media:
Seoul Culture Today: http://www.sctoday.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=43097
Newsian: https://www.newsian.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=70964
Korea Economy Daily: https://www.hankyung.com/article/202407091200i
Radio Klassik: https://radioklassik.at/programm/sendeformate/thema/tired-palm-trees/
Blog by “Bunhong Gongju”: https://blog.naver.com/ohseongae/223506170166
Blog by “Samguksagi”: https://blog.naver.com/kbs5590/223507904881
Blog by Prof. PARK Yeong-sil „Personal Image Branding Lab“: https://blog.naver.com/osil0928/223507067711
Artdot: https://www.instagram.com/p/C9TsC3vJk2c/?igsh=Y2t2MDkwMzZzb2Nx
ArtLamp: https://www.instagram.com/p/C9Z8JzDyQN3/?igsh=ODYzNjhhOG8yM3B0&img_index=4
expanded
Tired Palm Trees

Photo: Seowon Nam. Courtesy of Art Sonje Center ⓒ 2024. Art Sonje Center all rights reserved.
«피곤한 야자수» 설치 전경. 사진: 남서원. 제공: 아트선재센터. ⓒ 2024. Art Sonje Center all rights reserved.

Photo: Seowon Nam. Courtesy of Art Sonje Center ⓒ 2024. Art Sonje Center all rights reserved.
«피곤한 야자수» 설치 전경. 사진: 남서원. 제공: 아트선재센터. ⓒ 2024. Art Sonje Center all rights reserved.

Photo: Seowon Nam. Courtesy of Art Sonje Center ⓒ 2024. Art Sonje Center all rights reserved.
«피곤한 야자수» 설치 전경. 사진: 남서원. 제공: 아트선재센터. ⓒ 2024. Art Sonje Center all rights reserved.

Photo: Seowon Nam. Courtesy of Art Sonje Center ⓒ 2024. Art Sonje Center all rights reserved.
신미정, , 2024, 폴리에스테르에 전사 프린트, 470 x 112 cm. 사진: 남서원. 제공: 아트선재센터. ⓒ 2024. Art Sonje Center all rights reserved.

Photo: Seowon Nam. Courtesy of Art Sonje Center ⓒ 2024. Art Sonje Center all rights reserved.
이디스 파이어, , 2024, 가짜 식물, 혼합 재료, 가변크기. 사진: 남서원. 제공: 아트선재센터. ⓒ 2024. Art Sonje Center all rights reserved.

Photo: Seowon Nam. Courtesy of Art Sonje Center ⓒ 2024. Art Sonje Center all rights reserved.
레굴라 데트빌러, , 2024, 가정용 식물, 레이스 가장자리, 고무, 종이말이, 다양한 받침대, 가변크기. 사진: 남서원. 제공: 아트선재센터. ⓒ 2024. Art Sonje Center all rights reserved.

Photo: Seowon Nam. Courtesy of Art Sonje Center ⓒ 2024. Art Sonje Center all rights reserved.
로스비타 바인그릴, , 2024, 텍스타일, 가변크기. 사진: 남서원. 제공: 아트선재센터. ⓒ 2024. Art Sonje Center all rights reserved.

Photo: Seowon Nam. Courtesy of Art Sonje Center ⓒ 2024. Art Sonje Center all rights reserved.
장종완, , 2024, 장지에 아크릴릭 과슈, 색연필, 194 x 259.2 cm. 사진: 남서원. 제공: 아트선재센터. ⓒ 2024. Art Sonje Center all rights reserved.

Photo: Seowon Nam. Courtesy of Art Sonje Center ⓒ 2024. Art Sonje Center all rights reserved.
사이프 쿠스마트, , 시리즈 중, 2020–2024. 사진: 남서원. 제공: 아트선재센터. ⓒ 2024. Art Sonje Center all rights reserved.

Photo: Seowon Nam. Courtesy of Art Sonje Center ⓒ 2024. Art Sonje Center all rights reserved.
빅토르 크루스 & 후고 포르티요, , 2024, 나무, 바나나 잎, 가변크기. 사진: 남서원. 제공: 아트선재센터. ⓒ 2024. Art Sonje Center all rights reserved.

Photo: Seowon Nam. Courtesy of Art Sonje Center ⓒ 2024. Art Sonje Center all rights reserved.
카트린 스트뢰벨, , 2011, 디지털 프린팅(드로잉), 선풍기 2대, 286 x 380 cm. 사진: 남서원. 제공: 아트선재센터. ⓒ 2024. Art Sonje Center all rights reserved.

Photo: Seowon Nam. Courtesy of Art Sonje Center ⓒ 2024. Art Sonje Center all rights reserved.
레굴라 데트빌러, , 2014, 수채화, 80 x 60 cm. 사진: 남서원. 제공: 아트선재센터. ⓒ 2024. Art Sonje Center all rights reserved.
Regula Dettwiler, Caladium made in China, 2014, watercolors, 80 x 60 cm.
Photo: Seowon Nam. Courtesy of Art Sonje Center ⓒ 2024. Art Sonje Center all rights reserved.
레굴라 데트빌러, , 2014, 수채화, 80 x 60 cm. 사진: 남서원. 제공: 아트선재센터. ⓒ 2024. Art Sonje Center all rights reserved.
Regula Dettwiler, Efeutute made in China, 2014, watercolors, 80 x 60 cm.
Photo: Seowon Nam. Courtesy of Art Sonje Center ⓒ 2024. Art Sonje Center all rights reserved.
레굴라 데트빌러, , 2014, 수채화, 80 x 60 cm. 사진: 남서원. 제공: 아트선재센터. ⓒ 2024. Art Sonje Center all rights reserved.