The Art Sonje Center presents photographs from NOH Suntag’s Internal Organs series (2009-2013) as its seventh Banner Project. The Internal Organs is the title of the series that documented the transformation of the former site of the Republic of Korea’s Defense Security Command (DSC) into the Seoul branch of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art from 2009 to 2013. NOH photographed the iron bars, concrete blocks, and wreckages that were ‘revealed’ by the demolition of the DSC, while using illumination in the middle of the night. He photographed them as if making ‘portraits’ of the building’s ‘inner organs’ and as if trying to expose the dark side of Korea’s modern history; the Internal Organs appear to be metaphors of the desires of the authorities who dominated the space for half a century as well as the wounds of the political victims. By exhibiting the enlarged image of two Internal Organs on a banner on the museum’s exterior wall, this Banner Project hopes to highlight the artist’s aim to analyze and expose the sociopolitical contexts of contemporary Korea. The banner will also publicize NOH’s upcoming solo exhibition that will take place in the Art Sonje Center in 2017.

About the Artist
NOH Suntag (born 1971, Seoul, Korea) lives and works in Seoul. NOH explores the way in which the Korean War is still alive and present in today’s Korean society. It is to investigate the gaps in the “power of division,” which often instigate interpretations that work for their own advantages by including war and division in the fixed chapters of history. His major solo exhibitions include Forgetting Machines (2012) at Hakgojae Gallery, Seoul; reallyGood murder (2010) at Sangsangmadang, Seoul; and Lunatic Fidelity (2010) at GoEun Museum of Photography, Busan. His works have also been shown in group exhibitions such as Oh My Complex at Württembergischer Kunstverein, in Stuttgart, Germany; Demonstrations-Making Normative Orders at Frankfurter Kunstverein, in Frankfurt, Germany. In 2012, NOH was awarded the Dong-gang International Photo Festival prize, and in 2014, he received the Korea Artist Prize from the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Korea.

Art Sonje Banner Project
Art Sonje Banner Project, initiated in November 2013, uses the rear façade of the Art Sonje Center to introduce large art prints. Unlike presentations in formal gallery spaces within the museum, the Banner Project further expands the spatial range of art appreciation and allows for art to intervene the surrounding environment and public places. Here, the artwork that has come out to the space of everyday life meets not only museum visitors but the general public as well. This project makes art an everyday experience for everyone that passes by the neighborhood and offers an opportunity to convey the cultural and artistic prospect of the Samcheongdong district, where Art Sonje Center stands. Paul Kajander, Young In Hong, Sung Hwan Kim, NOH Suntag, Heman Chong, and Minouk Lim have participated in the Banner Project.