Youngjoo Yoo

Born Seoul, South Korea (1970)

I asked 2017
photo prints, paper
Courtesy of the artist

Artist’s statement

I asked, “Who are the people living on the edge?”’

I focus on sound, interviews, performance and writing realised as installations as a way of maximising conversation and minimising the productions of made outcomes.

Dear Folakunle Oshun,

Thank you for inviting me to the first edition of the Lagos Biennial. The topic has given me a chance to think about life in a different way. Even though I don’t have a proper job to earn money I still have a place to stay and some people who might lend me some money in an urgent situation. On that note, because of my current circumstances, I’m not living on the edge, I guess. So, I started thinking about what life on the edge is about. But then a fundamental question arose, “Who are the people living on the edge?”

It seems like disasters happen almost every day, maybe every minute, somewhere in a corner of the world; it is hard to identify who is being affected. There are so many people suffering and who have suffered. It is funny to think about that I used to consider myself as someone living on the edge.

I think that many people including myself think of their lives as living on the edge of their own boundaries. I’m interested in exploring what people in Lagos feel their boundaries are. So I’ll be in Lagos early before the Biennial starts to do my interview project and ask the question what living on the edge means to each individual. I will record a handful of stories and then will leave traces of evidence of each conversation at the Biennial. It can be in the form of a letter.

To be completely honest with you, my artwork won’t change the world alone. Instead, according to a proverb; “Our freedom can be compared to a jar with many holes, which cannot hold water. If each one of us can put a finger in one hole, the jar will hold water.” I’d rather be one of those fingers.