Maybe the term "hyper-modernism" will establish in art history as easily as neo-modernism and post-modernism did. Both these terms signalized that mankind had left modernism, having entered an era which was beyond simple modernity. Will hyper-modernism finally break the chains and horizons of our modern, yet, already out of date thinking-process, showing that mankind has left "modern modernism" long time ago? Hyper-modernism could become a fixed term in art history when cloning will have become everyday life and people will be able living in outer space.

Korean contemporary art started developing in the 1950s. One aim of Korea's contemporary art scene has always been to combine western artistic influence with Korean tradition. Park Sung-Tae from Seoul, whose latest work can be viewed from 17 September until 12 October in Moscow, might be one of the first who has successfully reached this aim. His art is deep in thought and sensitivity, beautiful and combines both western and Korean spirit, creating unique art that peacefully and silently carries man into a new era of time.

In fact, Park Sung-Tea is the most modern artist that I have come across in recent times. His art work is fascinating, intelligent and sensitive as well as frightening as it forces us to think about modern life and culture. The artist himself has deeply thought about how to give shape to his subject matters such as existence, communication, sharing, life, evolution, traps, cloning, the future, life on earth, society, attitudes, values, boundaries, transformation, desire, providence, infinity and last but not least modernity.

The exhibition showing Park Sung-Tae's latest work is assisted by the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Russia and can be visited at the Krokin Gallery. Spread over three floors, Park Sung-Tae's installation reminds of a high-tech tower of Babylon or a modern version of Dante's Devine Comedy. The installation consists of infants, grown-ups and animals made out of aluminum grids. The figures are hung at walls, leaving a space between figure and wall. The aluminum grids are illuminated. Thus, each figure occurs twice, namely as factually existing aluminum object and as virtual shadow symbolizing its clone. The figures' reflected shadows reveal an existence in space that is both real and unreal.

In the basement, aluminum figures swim at the ceiling, symbolizing an impossible and twilight contemporary civilization. Yet, different from the basement in Dante's Devine Comedy, i.e. the lowest circle and final stage of life for those who are damned to suffer in hell, Park Sung-Tae's basement is the place of revelation and birth. His figures respect life and are striving for securing a peaceful life.

Throughout the entire installation, aluminum grid infants that symbolize test-tube embryos are hung up. Finally, in the last floor, the artist shows infants and the mechanical process of cloning. In real life, these infants would have been supposed to grow up and become adults. Park Sung-Tae's infants, however, look frightened, fearing that his installation will soon be the planet where we must live in future times.

The artist's work, however, does not reflect how doubtful and tragic this life might look. Instead, on the top floor of the installation-almost like Dante, whose top floor in the Devine Comedy was heaven-Park Sung-Tae leaves his infants in the colors of the rainbow, symbolizing strength and the capability of rejecting a dark and gloomy future.

Park Sung-Tae does not give advice which way to go.

The artist said that for as long as he has been expressing his thoughts in paintings drawn on rice paper, he did not use the paper without consciousness of it being a medium imbued with a life that embodies respiration and aspiration. To Park Sung-Tae this means that when scientific technology will finally breathe, it will become a space in which man will be able to breathe. The rice paper's ability to breathe is not only a material to draw on but a medium of communication. A black ink drawing does not keep the paper away from breathing but makes it smoother and richer.

The installation shown in Moscow reflects Park Sung-Tae's ethical belief, namely his constant respect for life albeit negative advances in modern science and technology and the terrors of a society where human beings are but aluminum grids and shadows.

That the artist's installation is bathed in light and the colors of the rainbow in spite of his difficult subject is proof of his hope for a future which is not covered by darkness but brightness.

Selma Stern