Media Artivism and gender subversion in South Korea: Siren Eun Young Jung’s “technology of the imagination”

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Sonia Dueñas Mohedas
Carlos III University, Faculty of Humanities, Communication and Documentation
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5077-7569
Natalia Martínez Pérez
University of Burgos, Faculty of Humanities and Communication
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2704-3572
Bárbara Sarmentera
Autonomous University of Madrid, School of Philosophy and Letters

Media artivism, as a form of knowledge production, not only allows us to recover and reflect on information through a wide diversity of artistic manifestations and practises but also has an impact on the global public. For this reason, this artistic trend, the first of the 21st century, serves as a platform for women and minorities to project their voice through resistance, evidencing activist interests with the aim of bringing about a transformation in society. Precisely, South Korean artist Siren Eun Young Jung is a recognized example in South Korea who, through video art and performance, continues to give continuity to her most long-lived purpose: Yeoseong Gukgeuk Project (2008-current day). This work explores the value of intrahistory through the memories of actresses who question gender roles. This article examines this media artivism project from a gender perspective, focusing on her research on Yeoseong Gukgeuk, a music-theatre genre that offers a subversive message about women, minorities, normativity and tradition through song, dance and strict training. Jung, who resorts to the “technology of the imagination” being aware of the absence of the image, compiles archive materials that have seen the light of day through the works that this project brings together.


Video of the authors related to this article:


El artivismo de la artista surcoreana Siren Eun Young Jung

Keywords
media artivism, Siren Eun Young Jung, South Korea, performance, video art, Yeoseong Gukgeuk

Article Details

How to Cite
Dueñas Mohedas, Sonia et al. “Media Artivism and gender subversion in South Korea: Siren Eun Young Jung’s ‘technology of the imagination’”. Artnodes, no. 33, pp. 1-10, doi:10.7238/artnodes.v0i33.417845.
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(c) Sonia Dueñas Mohedas, Natalia Martínez Pérez, Bárbara Sarmentera, 2024


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Author Biographies

Sonia Dueñas Mohedas, Carlos III University, Faculty of Humanities, Communication and Documentation

P

hD in Media Research and specific assistant at the Communication Department of Carlos III University of Madrid (UC3M). She is a member of the Television-Cine research group: Televisión-Cine: Memoria, Representación e Industria (TECMERIN) and the research project El documental institucional y el cine de aficionado coloniales: Análisis y usos (PID2021-123567NB-I00). Her thesis on South Korea’s film industry in the age of globalization has international mention and the highest rating. She also earned the Korea Foundation Field Research Fellowship for a stay at the Korea National University of Arts in 2021.  She is a general secretary and founding member of the Estudios y Cultura Coreana en España (ADECCE). Her lines of research are mainly based on film studies and media industry studies.

Natalia Martínez Pérez, University of Burgos, Faculty of Humanities and Communication

PhD in Media Research at Carlos III University of Madrid (UC3M) and assistant professor doctor in the Department of History, Geography and Communication at the University of Burgos (UBU). She is also a member of the research groups Televisión-Cine: Memoria, Representación e Industria (TECMERIN) and Sociedad y conflicto. Estudios culturales de la(s) violencia(s) (SYCON) and the research project El documental institucional y el cine de aficionado coloniales: Análisis y usos (PID2021-123567NB-I00). She has completed research stays at the University of Exeter (UK) and City University of New York (USA). She is the author of several articles published in scientific journals, such as Icono 14 and Studies in Spanish & Latin American Cinemas. Her lines of research are mainly based on television studies and gender studies.

Bárbara Sarmentera, Autonomous University of Madrid, School of Philosophy and Letters

Doctorand in the Department of History and Theory of Art of the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM). Her research focuses on South Korea’s contemporary art  in the second half of the 20th centuy. She is a graduate of the master degree on East Asian Studies from the same university obtained after she completed a degree in Fine Arts from Rey Juan Carlos University (URJC). She also served as an intern at the Instituto Universitario de Investigación CEAO (Centro de Estudios de Asia Oriental)  of the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM). In 2012, she began her Korean language studies at the Centro Superior de Idiomas Modernos (CSIM). She has also been a student in the Diploma of Korean Studies at the Instituto Complutense de Estudios Internacionales (ICEI). Her lines of research focus on art history studies and gender studies.

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