Young-jun Tak

I want to bring this very human condition of self-contradiction to my work. That's why I try to bring together contrasting conditions: to merge them through queer bodies.

Young-jun Tak (b. 1989 in Seoul, South Korea) examines sociocultural and psychological mechanisms that shape belief systems, ranging from simple worshipped objects to sophisticated forms of religions. Mixing media, techniques and subject matter, Tak pursues obfuscation as a mode of critique. In his sculptures, installations and films, Tak often exposes human bodies in the context of polarizing norms and conventions and tries to dissolve fossilized coded aesthetics—byproducts of polarizations and exclusions—for example, found in religious icons, propaganda tools, protest materials, gender symbols and so on.

Tak had solo exhibitions at Atelier Hermès (Seoul, 2023), Julia Stoschek Foundation (Berlin, Dusseldorf, 2023), palace enterprise (Copenhagen, 2023), Wanås Konst (Knislinge, Sweden, 2023), O—Overgaden (Copenhagen, 2023), Efremidis (Berlin, 2022), SOX (Berlin, 2022), and Fragment (Moscow, 2021). He participated in international exhibitions at the High Line (New York, 2023), Chicago Architecture Biennial (2023), Lyon Biennale (2022), KINDL Center for Contemporary Art (Berlin, 2022), Berlin Biennale (2020), Seoul Museum of Art, SeMA Bunker (2019), Istanbul Biennial (2017) among others.

He currently lives and works in Berlin.

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