Reviews: LX 2.0 - Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries

Good Morning Mongoloids by Miguel Amado

LX 2.0 is a new on line gallery, hosted by Lisbon's Galeria Lisboa 20 and directed by Portuguese curator Luis Silva. Lx 2.0 series of commissions to artists that have been making a name within the international new media art scene is already marking the field. After being inaugurated with Santiago Ortiz's 'NeuroZappingFolks,' the LX 2.0 program now hosts rising stars Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries, who present 'Morning of the Mongoloids.' The piece embraces the aesthetics consistently pursued by YHCHI members Young-Hae Chang and Marc Voge, as distinguished by Flash-based animations comprised solely of text written in black on a white background, sometimes accompanied by voiceovers and jazz music. In this work, the duo narrates--both in Portuguese and English--the experience of a Western white man who, after a night of partying, wakes up in an unknown place, only to realize that he's in Seoul, Korea, speaking Korean, and has become Korean. Via this narrative, the artists portray the prejudices prevailing within the West regarding Eastern people. Revealing the biased visions of both populations towards each other, they thus examine the cultural conflict existing between these regions that is escalating due to the migratory fluxes from Eastern countries to Europe and the US. As with their previous work, 'Morning of the Mongoloids' addresses this heavy topic with a humorously light, yet ironic approach.

Morning of the Mongoloids by Régine
(originally published in We Make Money Not Art - May 2007)

Lisboa 20 Arte Contemporânea has just launched Manhã dos Mongolóides (Morning of the Mongoloids) commissioned to Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries.
The work tells the tragic, compelling and quite hilarious story of a white man who wakes up after too many drinks and an office party to find himself in the skin of someone with another body, face and, oh! rage oh désespoir, another race!
I worship their work. Who else would make me smile and smile while throwing at my face two of my arch-enemies: Flash and jazz music.

Arte digital não-interactiva? by Fernanda
(originally published in LabCULT - May 2007)

Foi lançada esse mês em português, no projeto LX2.0 da Lisboa 20 Arte Contemporânea, a narrativa virtual Manhã dos Mongolóides.
Os autores, a artista coreana Young-Hae Chang e o poeta americano Marc Voge, são conhecidos por suas obras digitais lineares e fechadas, fugindo de imagens, botões e outras tendências da narrativa digital contemporânea.
A dupla, que se opõe à interatividade como característica distintiva da nova mídia, promove uma literatura criada a partir de animações rápidas em Flash, tendo como inspiração a poesia concreta e o cinema experimental.
Manhã dos Mongolóides é uma narrativa sobre o preconceito e a separação Oriente/Ocidente, contando a história de um homem branco que após uma noite de bebedeira acorda confuso em Seul.
O trabalho de Chang e Voge, ao questionar a função da interatividade no meio digital, serve como exemplo da variedade de vertentes na área da arte/narrativa digital.
O projeto em si também é bem interessante e merece um acompanhamento!