Religion:Je Sa Jib-Man

The Fourth Group (제 4 집만, Je Sa Jib-Man) was a Korean avant-garde art collective that existed from June to August in 1970. Led by artist Kim Ku-lim, the group's membership was open to people hailing from diverse backgrounds. The group's name come from Kim Ku-lim's reasoning that, "By using the number 4, I attempted to break through conventions in the Korean art world as well as in Korean Society because this number carried negative nuances throughout our history." Although they could not express their anti-government sentiments under the totalitarian Park Chung Hee Regime, they produced consciousness-raising art in their quest to realize a radical utopian vision of society through nonviolent chance. Their philosophical aim to stoke a sense of socio-political agency within the Korean public and to unify North and South Korea was inspired by the Daoist concept of muwi (무위 , inexertion). Muche (무체, incorporeality), first coined by the member Bang Tae-soo, encapsulates The Fourth Group’s ideological framework for attaining their utopian vision of unity and transformation without violence. Under the guise of parodying imported art ideas of the Western Avente-Garde, The Fourth Group was able to stage their politically charged artwork in an oppressive society. The group's most notable performance was Funeral for Established Culture and Art, which was staged on Korea's National Liberation Day, August 15, 1970.

History

Foundation, June 1970

The Fourth group was in formation since 1967, and its origin can be traced to the participation by future members in the Union Exhibition of Korean Young Artist Groups. They officially launched the Fourth Group on June 20, 1970, with an inaugural "establishment convention" that took place at Sorim, a coffee shop located in Euljiro, Seoul. To begin the event, the members placed their hands over their heart, sang the national anthem, recited the pledge of allegiance, and paid a silent tribute to patriotic martyrs. This was followed by a reading of their manifesto while soul music, psychedelic music, moktak (wooden percussion utilized by Buddhist monks), and sounds of nature played in the background. They played Brahms' symphony to mark the ending of the convention and to symbolize the confluence of Eastern and Western thought present in their art practice.

Artistic Ideas

The group's philosophy centered around muche (무체, incorporeality, 無體), Lao Tzu’s daoist concept of wuwei (無爲 , inexertion or nonbeing). The two hanja (Chinese characters) of muche can literally be translated as "without body." Unlike other avant-garde artist groups at the time, the Fourth Group aimed to include experts from non-art disciplines and cover all areas of society ranging from art, religion, and politics. This inclusivity stemmed from their belief that art could no longer remain object-based and solely visual and that all disciplines should be unified as "total art." They sought to use art as a vehicle to think through and change all areas of life. Their performances included socio-political protests and institutional critiques to uncover the sinister realities of bodily control, suppression of the press, and other injustices present in Korean society.

The group used performance in order to resist and reimagine what they considered the "misaligned body structure": a (Korean) body that bears the history of Japanese colonialism, the Korean War, and the pressures of the new Park Chung-Hee regime.

Manifesto

The Fourth Group's manifesto "Declaration and Doctrine," which was announced at their "inaugural convention," outlined their goals toward fostering a new era of society that was guided by the philosophical principal of muche. With an emphasis on freedom of expression and communication, the group envisioned a complete revision of Korean society in order to achieve a return to Korea's "pure," "natural," and "unified" state. The phrase, "We were born on this land with a historical mission," borrows its exact language from the introduction of the Charter of National Education (which all Koreans had to recite, sometimes daily, during Park Chung-hee's regime). By referencing Park's famous words spoken in December 1968, and using evocative language like "liberation" and "unity," the Fourth Group intended to subvert and destroy the existing political order that that dominated Korean society with its oppressive nationalism.

Performances

1969: Untitled, Performed in the Name of Environmental Art

August 15 1969: Toilet Tissue Dress. Staged at a fountain located in Seoul, avante-garde fashion designer Sohl Il-gwang collaborated with Jung Kang-ja to create a dress for her made completely out of toilet paper. With the dress draped over her nuder body, Jung Kang-ja walked into the fountain and wet the entire garment. Upon stepping out of the fountain, the toilet paper was translucent and clung to her body. The duo were challenging fashion and gender norms by using unconventional materials and the artist’s body.

July 1970: Street Mime Piece. In Myeong-dong, one of the busiest commercial districts in Seoul, Chong Chan-sung and Ko Ho wore placards around their necks with signs that read: "With what do you prove your virginity?" and "Looking for myself, who lost his target income of 4,400 thousand won." The Fourth Group's name was at the bottom of each sign. The pair meandered through the crowded streets before Chong entered a store and stood in front of the display window. In front of the same shop, Ko began to consume wine and bread (referencing the Christian Eucharist, which was well known in Korea due to high rates of religious conversion). In response to Ko eating, Chong then began to lick the window pane in front of him so vigorously that his saliva trailed down the glass. Chong's location inside the shop's display case rendered him as a caged specimen that had to "perform" in order to receive food. The fact that the only sustenance he could toil for was the bread and wine, symbolizing the body and blood of Christ, spoke to the histories of missionary and colonial occupation which forcefully subjugated Korea to imported ideologies and corporeal restraints. Most people passed by, but an onlooker who had seen this series of uncomfortable events, grabbed the bread from Ko and gave it to Chong. A second viewer, who was amused by Chong's desperate acts, dribbled water on the outside-facing part of the window.

August 15, 1970: Funeral Ceremony of the Established Art and Culture. Staged on Korea's Liberation Day, the performance involved a funeral procession that began at Sajik Park and ended at the Han River. In front of the statue of a Confucian scholar, Lee Yul-kok, they announced the independence of Korean culture and read from their "Declaration and Doctrine." The artists then carried a coffin filled with books containing "outdated political ideologies." Jung Kang-ja lead the procession holding a white flag (to symbolize harmony) and the national flag of South Korea. Kim Ku-lim also carried a white flag, while Jung Chan-seung and Son Il-kwang carried the coffin. Kang Kuk-jin trailed behind them with a shovel. This performance ended prematurely due to the intervention of the police.

August 1970: Muche (Incorporeality) Exhibition. Planned to take place at the National Information Center from August 20 to 24, the group prepared to host a seminar, a pantomime performance by Jung Chan-seung, and proclamation. It was shut down by the police on the first day.

Mail Art

Just before the group's founding, Kim Ku-lim and other artists executed a mail art piece on May 15, 1970. For this piece, Condom and Carbamine, the group put together 201 envelopes which they then sent to 20 art critics and handed out to 80 Seoul National University students in front of the school's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. When the recipients opened the package, they found 4 separate bags with accompanying instructions that specified the times in which the bags were to be opened that night: 8:40, 8:50, 9:00, 9:05. Each bag (in the order they were to be opened) held white powder, a torn condom, a punctured sheet of paper, and instructions that directed as follows:

Open the first envelope on May 15 at 8:40 PM.

Upon opening this envelope, mix the powder with 20 milliliters of cold water. State your name three times, collect your mental self, and open the second envelope at 8:50 PM.

Put the condom on your genitals, and open the third envelope at 9:00 PM.

Breathe through the perforated sheet of paper four times, look towards the Nam Mountain for four seconds, and open the fourth envelope at 9:05 PM.

These seemingly eclectic objects and directions were rife with political meaning. As suggested by the title, the unlabeled white powder was actually carbamime: a gastrointestinal pain reliever from America that enjoyed brief popularity in Korean in 1962 before its import was halted in 1963 due to its negative effects on the Korean pharmaceutical industry. By directing participants to drink an indiscriminate powder and putting a condom on their bodies, the piece mimics the harrowing ways dictatorships can invade the most intimate realms of bodily autonomy.

The project took place on the nationally appointed "Day to Capture Rats," a program to distribute rodenticide (a white powder) to all citizens to use at a specifically designated time of the day. Due to this overlap, some participants wondered if the carbamime was rat poison. This rigorous rats extermination program not only exemplified the Park regime's fervor to erase all signs of underdevelopment, but it also spoke to a deeper colonial history where rats were used to represent state enemies.

Reception

Their ambitious ideals were not received well by the public, government, and the artistic community at the time. The Fourth Group was antagonistic to the state of Korean society and the established art conventions in many ways. Above all, most of the members were new graduates from Hongik University or art-school dropouts (like Kim Ku-lim). Thus, they were viewed by the elite art communities as irrelevant novices. That was because the ideals about art were then dominated by Japanese and European canons and centered around developments in painting. State-run museums controlled the content and style of art that was shown through the Gukjeon, which was the common short-name for the National Art Exhibition. The National Art Exhibition mirrored the earlier Japanese-run forerunner called Seonjeon (Annual Korean Art Exhibition) in that it favored apolitical academic painting that was inspired by Japanese modernism.

Muche (Incorporeality) Exhibition and Dissolution, August 1970

Their official activities as a group culminated in their Incorporeality Exhibition which was planned to take place at the National Information Center on August 20 -24. Events that were prepared for the four-day event included a seminar, pantomime performance by Jung, and proclamation. The group also planned to disorient the audience by darkening the room lights, making a fog out of dry-ice in a darkened room, and blaring a loud siren. Before the exhibition could even conclude its first day, it was shut down by authorities. All following attempts at staging events were undermined by the police, and after relentless government pressure the group was forced to disband in 1971. Despite its short existence, The Fourth Group and its members were the first to explore performance art in Korea and would go on to inspire other contemporaneous art groups in Seoul, such as Space & Time Group (ST).

Politics

While The Fourth Group did not seek direct political participation (although they were open to the idea), they structured their group like a political organization during a moment of intense political oppression. With anticipation for the group's future expansion, the members organized themselves into different branches and assigned duties to members to lead the subordinate subgroups. The specific titles were designated as follows: Kim Ku-lim: Tongryeong (president), Jung Chan-seung: Chongryeong (secretary general), Bang Tae-soo: Poryeong (spokesperson), and Son Il-kwang: Uijang (chairman). Their activity and existence as an artist group can also be read as antigovernment since they communed at a political moment where assemblies and artistic activities were being oppressed by the martial law under the name of Yushin (Revitalizing) Reform that was in effect from 1972 to 1979.

Evident in the group's time of formation and manifesto, their work was a response to the compounding traumas wrought by the Japanese occupation, the Korean War, and Park Chung-Hee's dictatorship. Under Park's regime (1963–1979), Korean bodies were subject to long hours of labor, daily morning calisthenic drills, strict dress codes, and other tyrannies inducted by martial law.

Art was heavily controlled by the government's agenda and art informel paintings were promoted at the Gukjeon and international art scene. The art informel movement was introduced to Korea by the United States Information Agency in the mid-1950s via traveling exhibitions and magazine publications. Art Informel was thus posited as a universal artistic language of freedom from communism that would liberate Korea from its colonial past and empower artists to join the international stage of art.

Although they avoided typical exhibition spaces that were controlled by the state in an effort to break down the walls between art and life, members were arrested on multiple occasions during their performances. Kim Ku-Lim had his books confiscated and he and his family underwent interrogation at by the KCIA after the Funeral Ceremony of the Established Art and Culture. Due to the continual harassment and threat of arrest, Kim Ku-lim ended up feeling to Japan and Jung Chan-seung moved to the United States.

Participants

• Kim Ku-lim
• Jung Kang-ja
• Jung Chan-seung
• Kang Kuk-jin
• Bang Tae-soo (theater director)
• Son Il-kwang (fashion designer)
• Ko Ho (Pantomime artist)
• Lee Ik-tae (film director)
• Lim Joong-woon (scriptwriter)
• Kim Bul-rae (sound engineer)
• Seok Ya-jeong (seal engraver)
• Lee Ja-kyung (journalist)
• Suk Ya-jeong (monk)

Further reading

• Yoo Jin Sang: "The Fourth Group: The Production of Utopia", in Kim Ku-lim: Like You Know It All, ed. Kim Honghee (Seoul: Seoul Museum of Art, 2013), 224.