Bolim Jeon

Bolim JEON is a multidisciplinary artist and communication designer, researching the everyday life we take for granted and questioning human subjectivity.

After earning a BA in Broadcasting and Film and a BBA in Business Administration at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, she worked in corporate communications.

Inspired by her own experiences, she pursues experimental approaches to depicting modern society, critically examining social structures, power, and relationships from the perspectives of mass communication, sociology, and philosophy.

Using diverse forms of expression, including moving image, writing, and installations, she designs physical and digital artefacts to foster ongoing conversations about social problems.

Co-Founder/Marketing @opening_magazine

I started 'OPENING' project as a Team DOMO to introduce UK based Korean artists, and bridge the gap between the public and artists.

Exhibitions / Selected Works

2021 RCA Satellite event IED BEEP BEEP

2021 Dead Social, GODÒ galerija, Lithuania

2020 Nobudam IV 'HOME'

2020 London International Creative Competition Official Selection

Questioning social norms and reviving under-recognized or underappreciated trivial moments in everyday life are central to my practice, as I believe that everyday routines accumulate to shape me, us, and our society as a whole.

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“In the belly of a whale”, my most recent investigation, is a research-led practice and a collection of experiments. It suggests a combination of installation and performance as a vehicle to deliver words and ideas in commuting spaces. I explore our relationship to mundane spaces and seek alternative possibilities that might arise in them.

From its very nature, a commute is a large bundle of social elements: social commitments to work, fixed times and spaces for travelling, and moments wherein we socialize with strangers. Visible and invisible location-based cues constantly guide us, including signages, advertisements, announcements in the carriage, and socially accepted ‘common-sense’ that sets the mutual mood of a commute. These social aspects impose particular characteristics of collective self-regulation and alienation in commuting spaces.

These spaces contain quietness, indifference, daydreams, endurance, and idleness.

So, we know of individuals who do not feel, think, or act but are rather on autopilot mode. However, each of us has a differentiated experience with our own personal context. Paying attention to the personal experience is essential to effectively engage with our surroundings and ultimately to establish the individual self, not an automated self.

By reoccupying these spaces and reflecting on the individuals’ stories, this project aims to reimagine an alternative relationship between agents and spaces. It will make urban commuters aware of their surroundings and their own experiences that have been overlooked and help them open up conversations about commuting.

Through the Covid era, we observed radical changes in our commutes and commuting spaces. Taking it as a break from the daily practice and a chance to seek different possibilities rather than going back to the ‘normal’ in everyday spaces.