Catalogue > Un extrait vidéo au hasard

A love story comes to an end when a woman sets out in search of a shamanic god. Director Kelvin Kyung Kun Park takes the trauma of a spurned lover as the starting point for his own search for a god. He makes several finds across various narrative strands – among whales in the sea, in a shipyard, at a steelworks. All of them are giants of their respective times: vast, sublime, godlike. Park’s imagery also evokes the divine: embers and steel, sparks and fire; people dwarved by huge cogwheels, robbed of their individuality. A brave new world in which workers produce modern industrial goods, even as industry has long since been producing the modern worker. Work is a god we have submitted to. Yet every existence is temporary and fleeting, which applies in equal measure to both relationships and gods. CHEOL-AE-KUM carries a unique signature. Park weaves together his different narrative strands into a complex documentary work of shamans and propellers, whales and industrial halls. His editing suite comes to resemble a piece of welding equipment, the soundtrack a commanding symphony of industrial noise, whale song, Gustav Mahler and shamanic songs.

Born in 1978 in Seoul, South Korea. He earned his BA in design and media arts from the University of California, Los Angeles and holds an MFA in film and video from the California Institute of the Arts. He is currently based in Seoul, working in the medium of film and video, photography and installations and as a lecturer.