What does “documenting” mean to Seo-Bo Park?
Since the late 1950s, Seo-Bo Park has been at the forefront of Korean abstract art, leading the reformation of outdated practices and ultimately helping to transform the entire field of Korean contemporary art through his groundbreaking works and other art activities. In the 1960s, he presented his Primordialis series, which is now viewed as the representative series of Korean Art Informel. With his Ecriture series of the 1970s and later works using hanji traditional paper, he combined modern forms and techniques with the spirit of Korean tradition, providing an Eastern interpretation of Western contemporary aesthetics. For more than sixty years, Park has painstakingly documented his work activities and daily routines in as much detail as possible. In this interview, he explains why these practices of documenting are central to all of the works that he has produced in his long and storied career.