Im Heung-soon Biography
M Heung-soon was born in Seoul in 1969. Currently, IM is working between Seoul and Jeju as a visual artist and filmmaker. His works deconstruct and expand the genres of visual art and film. IM has been organizing and producing works in diverse forms, crossing the areas of documentary film as contemporary art and public art, individual and collaborative works, exhibition space and theater, and sites of everyday life.
IM started a career as an artist in 1998 and held a total of sixteen solo exhibitions. His major solo exhibitions include Reincarnation (MoMA PS1, 2015), Things that Do Us Part (MMCA Hyundai Motor Series, MMCA, 2017), Ghost Guide (The Page Gallery, 2019), Title Match: IM Heung-soon vs. Omer Fast «Cut!» (Buk-Seoul Museum of Art, 2022) and Memories Showers Seas (Jeju4·3Peace Memorial Hall, 2023).
IM has also been invited to a number of international exhibitions and film festivals, including the Gwangju Biennale in 2002 and 2010, the Sharjah Biennale and Venice Biennale in 2015, the Taipei Biennale in 2016, and Carnegie International in 2018. As a filmmaker, IM released eight feature films, starting with Jeju Prayer (2012). He received the Silver Lion Award at the 2015 Venice Biennale for Factory Complex (2014) and the Audience Winner at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival for Ryeohaeng (2016).
His works are in the collection of major Korean and international art museums such as the MMCA (National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art), Seoul, Centre Pompidou in Paris, LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art), Stavanger Art Museum (Stavanger, Norway), in the Sharjah Art Foundation in the United Arab Emirates.
