KIGOJA Standard Time (KST) at OCAT Institute, Beijing

KIGOJA Standard Time is shown on the home page of OCAT Institute’s website (bottom right, the time difference is 45 minutes between KIGOJA Standard Time and Korean Standard Time)

In 2016, “KIGOJA Standard Time” and the eponymous exhibition was shown at KIGOJA, an art space in Seoul, Korea. “KIGOJA Standard Time” is a fictional time zone conceived and created in the context of the exhibition. KIGOJA Standard Time is UTC +9.75 (Japan and South Korea follow the standard time offset of UTC+09, while China follows UTC +8; and in 2015, North Korea decided to remove themselves from their colonial history by setting up their new Pyongyang time zone at UTC +8.5). Audiences were allocated their timeslots to visit the exhibition from an online booking system. Through the actions of booking and visiting, they implicitly agreed and accepted the existence of such fictional time zone. The artist broadcasted the KIGOJA Standard Time on site via the website of the art space. This work/intervention can be seen as a critique by the artist on the manipulation of time, as well as interweaved situation of reality and fiction. In the current exhibition, KIGOJA Standard Time will be presented again on the home page of OCAT Institute’s website. Archival materials from the 2016 exhibition will also be exhibited as well.

Exhibition view at OCAT Institute