Coexistence

Fotografiska Talinn opens a new exhibition Coexistence by the young artist Cho Gi-Seok, who is one of the best-known Asian fashion photographers today. Through his highly imaginative works, Cho Gi-Seok constantly seeks beauty and loves pairing the human body with beautiful fragments of plants. His photographs are characterized by strong compositions, where everything from light to colours, has been carefully thought through.

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Born in Seoul, Republic of Korea, in 1992, Cho Gi-Seok dropped out of Kookmin University at the age of 20 to pursue a career as an art director, visual artist and photographer. Initially photographing his friends and flowers in Seoul, he gradually turned to fashion photography and during that same time, in 2016, also created his own fashion brand, KUSIKOHC. Gi-Seok is attracted to beauty and the analogue photographic process to capture it. He calls it the "unexpected beauty" which, according to him, cannot be produced by digital means. As a fashion photographer, Gi-Seok has collaborated with Vogue Korea, Elle Korea, Esquire Korea, and brands such as Prada, Nike, Adidas, and Cartier.Coexistence is Cho Gi-Seok's first major exhibition, which aims to show a range of his work from 2018–2020. Gi-Seok's photographs are characterized by deliberately worked-out compositions, where all objects have been carefully selected and assembled. His images exude a delicate harmony, purity, beauty, symbolism, and a refined atmosphere.

Whether a portrait of a person or a flower, the photograph reflects the complexity of life and its charming ambiguity. One word Gi-Seok often comes back to in his work is coexistence. From his perspective, everything is meant to live together: stones, trees, animals, spaces, machines, and people.For the exhibition opening, a new plant installation will be created by the Dutch florist Peter Boeijkensik, cherished by the Estonian community for his flower shop in the Rotermann quarter. After the opening, floristry workshops inspired by the exhibition will take place with Peter Boeijkensik, of which the florist himself says: "Expect the unexpected!".Maarja Loorents, Exhibitions Manager at Fotografiska: "The notion of coexistence used in the title of the exhibition is very close to the artist's heart, as he has explained that to him certain phenomena and things in life are timeless and unchanging, such as the human body. The exhibition also showcases one of his series entitled FLOWER Study, where Gi-Seok has brought together in one piece a fragment of a human body and a flower/plant motif that resembles it. A perfect artwork is born, where every detail is in place and where nothing is left to chance. "