SCNU Professor Kim Young-nam Presents “Transformation of the Story” Exhibition in Munich, Germany

- Noted for blending performance and installation art

Kim Young-nam, Professor of Creative Writing in the School of Animation and Cultural Content at Sunchon National University (SCNU, President Lee Byung-woon), announced that he presented his exhibition “Transformation of the Story” at the Rathausgalerie (City Hall Gallery) in Munich, Germany, on June 22.

The exhibition was a project by “GuNam Collective,” a two-artist group to which Professor Kim belongs, and was held at the invitation of the Longega Project, an Italian artist organization. In addition to the exhibition, the group explored opportunities for collaboration and exchange with international artists and arts organizations.

“Transformation of the Story” takes Franz Kafka’s novel The Metamorphosis as its textual foundation, deconstructing it sentence by sentence into an installed artwork. Through a performance that changes each hour, the piece explores the “transformation” (or metamorphosis) of the story, posing the question: How can a story be transformed through the act of performance, and does that transformation hold meaning? While Kafka’s Metamorphosis depicts existence and absurdity through the sudden transformation of a man into an insect, this exhibition reflected on the absurdity and irony inherent in the act of creation within a gallery space.

The performance and installation featured Professor Kim in the dual roles of “the artist” and “the cleaner” of the gallery?figures occupying contrasting positions. Borrowing techniques from early 20th-century avant-garde and surrealist movements, the work questioned the nature of the artist and the act of creation, drawing attention from international artists and art professionals alike.

Professor Kim remarked, “This is a project I had envisioned for years, and finally bringing it to life has left me with new challenges. I plan to continue creating interdisciplinary art content that fuses video, performance, and theater, in collaboration with international artists.” He added, “I also look forward to contributing to a group exhibition in T?rkiye this November and to collaborative presentations and networking activities with overseas artists next year.”