Der Traum des Publikums: The Dream of the Audience: Theresa Hak Kyung Cha

Language, the common denominator in my special interests with literature, linguistics, and film semiology, has been the primary basis for resource and influence in my work. As a foreigner, leaning a new language extended beyond its basic function of communication as it is generally for a native speaker, to a consciously imposed detachment that allowed analysis and experimentation with other relationships with language.
Theresa Hak Kyung Cha

With this publication, published in conjunction with the exhibition at the Vienna Generali Foundation (14 May–15 August 2004), the exceptional poetic and conceptual work of the Korean American artist Theresa Hak Kyung Cha (1951–1982) had been introduced to Europe for the first time. Having herself experienced geographic exile and cultural and linguistic displacement, Cha addressed themes such as memory and alienation. Her artist’s books, mail art, performances, as well as her slide pieces, videos, films, and installations are characterized by a deep engagement with language. Within just one decade, she created a body of pioneering works whose relevance was only fully discovered in recent years.