Vancouver-based conceptual artist Ken Lum (whose work can currently be seen in a major retrospective at the Vancouver Art Gallery) presents the first film in his Summer series at Day for Night:
“Vengeance is Mine: Reality takes Vengeance on All, including the Innocent”
Series begins May 1st at 3pm with what is considered by many to be one of the greatest Korean films of all time, The Housemaid (1960).
An utterly unpredictable work…The shocking nature of the film is both disturbing and pleasurable – Cahiers du Cinéma
Dong-sik teaches music at a textile factory and shows particular interest in an article about a murder that occurred in Geumcheon. One day, Dong-sik receives a love letter from a female factory worker named Seon-yeong. He reports this fact to the factory dormitory supervisor, and Seon-yeong is forced to leave her job. Meanwhile, her friend Gyeong-hui begins frequenting Dong-sik’s new house on the pretext of receiving piano lessons. When his wife’s health begins to decline, Dong-sik asks Gyeong-hui to recommend a good housemaid. While Dong-sik’s wife is away visiting her family, Gyeong-hui confesses to him that she is in love with him, only to be run out of the house. The housemaid, who had been watching secretly from outside the window, seduces Dong-sik. Three months later, she is pregnant. A maelstrom of psychological manipulation, self-destruction and sexual predation has been unleashed on the household. – Mi-jeong Lee
Directed by Kim Ki-Young | Starring Lee Eunshim, Kim Jin-kyu
In Korean with English subtitles | 110 minutes
The Housemaid is the first in a series of revenge films that Ken Lum will be presenting all summer long
July: Vengeance is Mine (1979, Japan)
August: The Story of Qiu Ju (1992, China)
September: Killer (1998, Kazakhstan)
About Ken Lum
From 2000 to 2006 Ken Lum was head of the graduate program in studio art at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, where he taught from 1990 until 2006. Lum joined the faculty of Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, in 2005 and worked there until 2007. He has been an invited professor at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris, the Akademie der Bildenden Kunst, Munich, California College of the Arts, San Francisco, and the China Art Academy, Hangzhou. Lum is co-founder and founding editor of Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art. He has published extensively, and a book of Lum’s writings, edited by Hans Ulrich Obrist, is forthcoming from Walter Koenig Books. In addition he recently completed an artists’ book project with philosopher Hubert Damisch that was launched with Three Star Press, Paris. Lum was Project Manager for Okwui Enwezor’s The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa 1945 – 1994 (2001). He was also co-curator of the 7th Sharjah Biennial (2005), and Shanghai Modern: 1919 – 1945 (2005). Lum has exhibited widely, including São Paulo Biennial (1998), Shanghai Biennale (2000), Documenta 11 (2002), the Istanbul Biennial (2007), and the Gwangju Biennale (2008). He recently completed a public art commission in Utrecht and is working on one for Toronto. His work will be seen in the Moscow Biennale later this year.
Co-presented by Vancouver is Awesome.
For more information, please visit:
http://www.waldorfhotel.com/2011/04/may-1st-ken-lum-presents-the-housemaid/
