street religion
young-jun tak
17 august–13 october 2023
Street Religion
Young-jun Tak
Young-jun Tak’s exhibition aptly titled “Street Religion” opens with the sculpture “Their Presumption of Our Filling,” a work that holds common and religious symbols, with the intention of welcoming passersby into the gallery. The sculpture of two røde pølser (red sausages, or hot dogs, to this American) bear the hand-carved visages of Saint Nicholas in early and old age. Originally the patron saint of ending hunger, Saint Nicholas in many contexts of course also implies the patron saint of milk, cookies, and the raging capitalism of Christmas presents. The two Saint Nicholases nuzzling together with ketchup and mustard in their metal cradle bring this beloved childhood street food, its attendant local nostalgia, and an introductory queerness into the gallery.
Once inside, the visitor encounters a second sculpture, “Our Holding in Their Gaze,” Tak’s metal and ceramic Christmas tree that dominates the space.
***
When I was a young child, my family would drive across what felt like an interminable swath of the eastern United States to visit extended family for Christmas. We would pack up suitcases and bags of beautifully wrapped presents, each labeled for the branch of the family we were going to visit—Grandma & Grandpa, Uncle or Aunt so-and-so, Cousins such-and-such.
I remember my parents’ stress at buying the right presents, and my own anticipated comfort at the familiar decorations in each house, the Christmas tree taking central pride of place with gifts abounding underneath, always the same year after year.
A true carefully orchestrated American dream.
***
“Our Holding in Their Gaze” is a different kind of Christmas tree—a bare metal frame echoing orthodox crosses, from which hang pine green cast ceramic body parts, instead of decorations and living greenery. His tree speaks to the interruption of queer experiences—intimacy, celebration, protest, marriage—by religious groups convinced that the control of others will lead to their own righteousness. Individuals who take ancient texts read through the lenses of zealots and myopic scholars to hand pick the list of those who are allowed into society and salvation from the fear of death—and those who are not.
***
I remember the time there was no Christmas tree at my one house on our Christmas pilgrimage. Whether it was the first time I noticed—my expectation of presents and decorations surpassing the attention of my cousins—or the first time it had been absent, I’m not sure. But I do remember my uncle’s disdainful explanation that the Christmas tree was a pagan symbol that distracted from the true message of Christ’s birth.
I was shocked—at first, at his refusal to participate in this ritual I had never before seen rejected. And then at the possibility that this simple tree had a much more complicated history than I had yet imagined. Where, actually, did this “pagan” ritual come from that made its way to every living room and shopping mall I had ever visited in suburban America?
As we know well, the symbols of most religions can be wielded to welcome some, while casting others out. Over centuries, each branch of the major monotheistic religions we live with today have found their ways to create codes, hierarchies, and outsiders. Today is no different, with political and economic interests casting allegiances with religious ones to determine the legal and social structures within which we are all permitted to live.
***
In all of his works, Tak imagines the ways that different shared spaces impact the queer body. These spaces can be domestic, religious, or civic—all overlapping forms of public and private that play out opportunities for control in different ways. Tak has said that the queer body is particularly attuned to the social, political, and moral structures embedded into architectural choices, be they public or domestic, and the edges of these spaces—as they are not commonly built for the queer body. It is easier to see the embedded choices if it is not built for you.
by Melanie Kress, Senior Curator, Public Art Fund, New York
education
2008–2015 Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul
BA, English Language and Literature
BA, Cross-Cultural Studies
upcoming
2025 8th Singapore Biennale, opening October 2025, curated by Singapore Art Museum
2025 14th Taipei Biennale, opening November 2025, curated by Co-Directors of Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, DE
solo exhibitions
2025 Galerie Nordenhake—Salon Kant., Berlin, DE
2025 Twelve, Twelve, Twelve, CFAlive (Conceptual Fine Arts), Milan, IT
2025 love your clean feet on thursday, palace enterprise, Copenhagen, DK
2025 Raise, Luis Adelantado, Valencia, ES
2024 Pain Is Left After the Bite, Philipp Zollinger, Zurich, CH
2024 I need to switch myself, COMA, AUS
2023 Love Your Clean Feet on Thursday, Atelier Hermés, Seoul, KOR
2023 Double Feature: Young-jun Tak, Julia Stoschek Foundation, Dusseldorf and Berlin, DE
2023 street religion, palace enterprise, Copenhagen, DK
2023 Wish You a Lovely Sunday, Wanås Konst, Knislinge, SE
2023 Doubt, Overgaden, Copenhagen, DK
2022 Wohin?, Efremidis, Berlin, DE
2022 Der Garten, Sox, Berlin, DE
2021 Wish You a Lovely Sunday, Fragment, Moscow, RU
group exhibitions
2025 Open Air Filmscreening, KINDL—Center for Contemporary Art, Berlin
2025 The Unruly Dance of Form, Fragment, New York
2025 Dance Now Think Later, Kalmar konstmuseum, Kalmar
2025 Form & Impact, Engadin Art Talks, Zuoz, CH
2024 24th SONGEUN Art Award, SONGEUN, Seoul
2024 Nurture Gaia, Bangkok Art Biennale, Bangkok, TH
2024 Rencontres Internationales Amsterdam, LOODS6, Amsterdam, NL
2024 Thinking About the Future: At the edge of Utopia, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, IT
2024 History will say we were best friends, Podium, Hong Kong, CN
2024 Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin 2024, Cinéma Pathé Les Fauvettes, Paris, FR
2024 A soft edge to break a sword, ChertLüdde, Berlin, DE
2024 4th Bangkok Art Biennale, Bangkok Art and Culture Center (BACC), Bangkok, TH
2024 3rd St. Moritz Art Film Festival, Kino Scala, St. Moritz, CH
2024 This is the end of the world, but it always started with you, Skånes konstforening, Malmø, SE
2024 Hovering, Capsule Venice, IT
2024 Laboratorium for Flet, Sophienholm, Lyngby, DK
2024 Unsentimental Education, BB&M, Seoul, KOR
2023 This is a Rehearsal, 5th Chicago Architecture Biennial, Chicago Cultural Center, US
2023 Dancing About Architecture, High Line, New York, US
2023 Boobs in the Arts—Fe:male Bodies in Pictorial History, Dittrich & Schlechtriem, Berlin , DE
2023 Paperworks, Kunstmuseum Heidenheim / Museum Schloss Hellenstein, Heidenheim , DE
2022 CLUBS 2, Sala Apolo, Barcelona, ES
2022 16th Lyon Biennale, Guimet Museum, FR
2022 Finger Bang, Perrotin, Paris, FR
2022 Forming Communities: Berliner Wege, KINDL – Center for Contemporary Art, Berlin, DE
2022 Megan Dominescu, Lea Draeger, Nika Fontaine, Aviva Silverman,Young-jun Tak, Mauer, Cologne, DE
2021 It’s Just a Phase, Kjøpmannsgata Ung Kunst, Trondheim, NO
2021 9th Berlin Masters, Wilhelm Hallen, Berlin Masters Foundation, Berlin, DE
2021 Erschreckend aktuell / Frighteningly topical, Gabriele Senn Galerie, Vienna, AT
2021 LETTER (to us), a billboard project at Elsenbrücke, Diskurs, Berlin, DE
2021 Round 4, Art for Black Lives, Online
2020 11th Berlin Biennale, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, DE
2020 Szene Berlin, Hall Art Foundation / Schloss Derneburg Museum, Derneburg, DE
2020 Locked in, BKV (Brandenburgischer Kunstverein) Potsdam, DE
2019 Show Me Your Selfie, Diskurs, Berlin, DE
2019 PRO-TEST, Seoul Museum of Art, SeMA Bunker, Seoul, KOR
2019 Show Me Your Selfie, Aram Art Museum, Goyang, KOR
2018 Schrein der Freundschaft, BKV Potsdam, DE
2018 A Strong Desire, PS120, Berlin, DE
2017 15th Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul Modern, TR
2016 The Others, König Galerie, Berlin, DE
public collections
Burger Collection, Hong Kong, CN
Copenhagen City Council, Copenhagen, DK
Julia Stoschek Foundation, Berlin, DE
SONGEUN Art and Cultural Foundation, Seoul, KOR
Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, KOR
awards & grants
2025 “Experimental Filmförderung”, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Potsdam
2024 The 24th SONGEUN Art Award, SONGEUN Art And Cultural Foundation ad Seoul Museum of Art, supported by Fondation Cartier
2024 13th VISIO European Programme on Visual Artists’ Moving Images, Florence
2024 Love at First Sight prize at St.Moritz Art Film Festival
2024 Short Film Co-Production, Norwegian Film Insitute, Oslo
2024 “Co-Production Documentary”, Ostnorsk Filmsenter, Lillehammer
2023 Support for Emerging Artist, Seoul Museum of Art
2023 Experimental Film Funding, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg
2023 NEUSTARTplus-Stipendium der Stiftung Kunstfonds, NEUSTART KULTUR der BKM
2021 TOY Berlin Masters Award, Berlin Masters Foundation, Burger Collection
2021 International Exchange Program for Young Artists, Arts Council Korea
2020 International Exchange Program, Arts Council Korea
2016–2017 International Exchange Program, Arts Council Korea
bio
Born in 1989 in Seoul, South Korea
Lives and works in Berlin, Germany
Young-jun Tak’s practice examines socio-political, cultural and psychological mechanisms that shape belief systems and often exposes the human body in the context of polarizing norms and conventions. The work unfolds as sculpture, installation and video work. Tak studied English Language and Literature, and Cross-Cultural Studies in Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, South Korea.