This exhibition takes the popular novel “Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982” (“82년생 김지영”) as a starting point from which to provide a new account of the everyday life of almost one generation later, which is born around the year 1998 and is now in their early to mid-20s. As the author Cho Nam-joo (조남주) strikingly showed, we can learn a lot from reflecting on our daily experiences in a society that is often hostile to the women who live in it.

Thus, this exhibition – in the spirit of the novel – gathers different accounts of young artists reflecting on their everyday lives. The artworks show a variety of approaches to contemplating gender in contemporary Korean society, spanning from exploring the body to imagining fictional worlds.

The original novel depicts the ordinary life of Kim Jiyoung (김지영), a woman in her 30s, describing daily and omnipresent forms of gender discrimination in contemporary Korean society. And while many were able to relate to the story of the best-selling novel, it is also limited by portraying one life in one specific time and space. The exhibition "Lee Subin, Born 1998" (“98년생 이수빈”) aims to fill this gap by adding a variety of new accounts to the debate, stressing different aspects of the issue.

Since “Lee Subin, Born 1998” (“98년생 이수빈”) is conceived as a group exhibition, the artworks are more than just themselves; but also create the identity of Lee Subin (이수빈) through the collective consciousness of the participating artists. It shows a character not only as a common experience but also the contradictions within us.

Besides being the initiator and curator of the "Lee Subin, Born 1998" exhibition, Miro Leon Bucher also functioned as a participating artist in the show. However, the artistic engagement was purposefully conceived as a passive involvement. As a non-Korean biological male, the mutual agreement sought participation that was not mentioned in the catalogue and that only served a supportive function for the central art pieces by the young female artists.

Thus, the piece is an automated musical performance. The soundscape features acoustic field recordings of birds singing to bring a calming mood and a lively feeling to the otherwise sparse gallery space. The primary instrument, a grainy synthesiser pad, serves as a sound carpet for the space, which allows contemplation by the visitors.

Through the sound design, the space gains a life of its own, becoming more than a sterile display of artworks but rather a space of engagement.

This is volume one of Decent Supply’s “aesthetic documentations”, featuring photographs by Miro Leon Bucher. The series aims for providing a space of curated art pieces documenting daily life around the world. This volume features 50 black and white photos shot in the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of Korea, and Japan.

Starting the preparation for shooting for this project, I decided to bring my beaten up Minolta AF-S Talkman, that I’ve bought for 30.000 Korean Won in a small second-hand shop in Seoul, to my travels to document daily life. All photos are shot on Ilford HP5 Plus, mostly pushed by 1 stop. The final selection features images taken in Japan [Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Nara], the People’s Republic of China [Shanghai, Beijing], and the Republic of Korea [Seoul, Daegu].

The book features 50 black and white images, shot on Ilford HP5 Plus 35mm film, printed on 170 gsm natural/uncoated paper, and comes in the size of 21 cm by 29,7 cm, is approximately 7mm thick, and weighs about 350 grams. All images have been developed and scanned by FotoMaru (포토마루) in Seoul, South Korea. Printing has been handled by a renowned British printing house.

"Acratic" is the first major musical release by "Miro Leon". The short EP builds on an established practice in the form of musical diary entries, released on SoundCloud with more than 300.000 plays. While in their prior work, the artist focused primarily on beat making, the EP expands this musical language, by including more spherical and ambient sounds.

With the beats stepping back in the musical mix, the heavily reverberated guitars become the main characteristic of the EP's sound. Their quality is rather calming and can roughly be seen in the tradition of beat-making, ambient music, and environmental music.

The title stems from the artist's studies in philosophy and refers to the Aristotelian concept of acrasia. In the reading of Aristotle, acrasia is the act of doing something bad conscious of it being bad. As result of the artist's continuous self-criticism, they deemed the music unworthy of being released on all major streaming platforms. Yet, in the end, their desire for public artistic expression overturned this prior attitude, making the release itself acratic in character.

You can find the EP on Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, Soundcloud, and many more.

Overwhelming Doubt” is the third EP by Miro Leon, featuring cover art by Hong Kong-based artist Yan Chum.

Words by the artist:
“This project is a very special one to me since it has a transitional character in my music-making. When I worked on my last main project, “Acratic,” I was mostly limited to a guitar and an audio interface. While that very much made the sound of the EP, I wanted to see what other tools I could use for this project. In what followed, I ended up manipulating tape, adopting orchestral sounds, and digging deeper into the world of synthesizers. The result is an odd mix of different songs with different approaches in style and structure. With this project, I re-embraced the process of looking for my own sound, and I believe that this is going to be a mindset I will embrace in the future as well.”

You can find the EP on Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, Soundcloud, and many more.

After having released numerous solo projects, Miro Leon Bucher started to collaborate with successful musician and label founder "Happy Tobi" in 2020. Together, they took on the genre of lo-fi beats, which belongs to Happy Tobi's main musical métier and ties in with Miro Leon's earlier works on Soundcloud.

With more than 2.000.000 plays and being featured by Apple Music, these tracks have been enjoyed on an international scale.

Musically, most of the instruments were recorded by Miro Leon, while Happy Tobi used his creative freedom to transform these elements into beautifully dense beats that often possess nostalgic qualities.

You can find "local town" on Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, Soundcloud, and many more.