Lapis Philosophorum 
Bokyung Jun

Bokyung Jun is interested in the relationship between art and non-art, as well as history and personal memory. Her work is based on interviews with people who have a hand craft oriented job for a long time. She is inspired by these non-art realm-people and finds “new sensibility of aesthetics” in real life, which is not included in the traditional aesthetics. She invites local craftsman as her “ignorant masters” (J. Ranciere) and documents their life stories. Finally, she interprets, deconstructs, and reconstructs interview with history, myth, literature to write a poem for the interviewee’s life. In doing so, two opposite narratives –personal oral statements and facts– re-write his/story. This is a way to make invisible, inaudible, and unsayable stories to be part of new history.

The artist made a video about Lidia Quipildor, who has been working at ´ace for 10 years. She is responsible for the maintenance and meals at ´ace. She provides caring and nourishing for the artists in silence. But at the same time, she enjoys making crafts as her hobby. In tradition, people regarded the art and labor are separated each other, but indeed the workers find out their value and meaning when they read books and talk about art.

In this 2 channel video, I filmed the process of her empanada making as well as craft making. While I am recording the gestures without tools for cooking or making craft, there is no clear distinction between working and art.