siren eun young jung + KIRARA: Queer Mnemonics, Mother Tongue, and Dusty Archive

Friday, November 7, 2025

6:30–8 p.m.
ARTIST PRESENTATION + DISCUSSION
siren eun young jung, Seoul
Queer Mnemonics: Mother Tongue and Dusty Archive
Moderator: Ji-Yoon Han, Montreal

8:30–9:30 p.m.
ELEKTRONIC MUSIC PERFORMANCE
KIRARA, Seoul

In February 2026, the Württembergischer Kunstverein will open an exhibition dedicated to the works of and collaborations between South Korean artists siren eun young jung and KIRARA. The two artists, who operate in and between the areas of visual art, performance (jung) and music (KIRARA), reflect in their works, among other things, both the private and political repressions, struggles, and potentials of queer identities in South Korea.

An initial public presentation by the artists at the WKV will take place on Friday, November 7, 2025, at 6:30 p.m. It includes a presentation by jung on the backgrounds, contexts and new developments of her works, as well as on the significance of her collaboration with musician KIRARA. The subsequent discussion will be led and moderated by Canadian curator Ji-Yoon Han, who presented jung’s work at the Momenta Biennale 2023 in Montreal. At 8:30 p.m., KIRARA will perform one of her unique and thrilling electronic music performances.

While jung is one of South Korea's earliest and most influential visual artists to address feminist, queer and transgender issues in her work, KIRARA is one of the country's most successful electro-pop musicians, openly addressing her identity as a trans person in her music.

jung’s artistic work encompasses videos, installations and performances. Based on the musical theatre genre Yeosung Gukgeuk, which was widespread in South Korea from the 1940s to the 1960s and in which the female and male roles were played exclusively by women, she has been researching the history and present of queer discourses and politics in South Korea for over ten years. How can a queer mother tongue be developed beyond Western narratives, terminology, and “dusty archives”? What forms of a queer political subject, as well as of “queering” history and the present, the private and the political, might be imaginable on this basis?

KIRARA's music combines elements of big beat, house and chiptune and is characterized by complex polyrhythms. She often integrates sounds such as video game noises into her experimental arrangements. In her profound lyrics she addresses, among other issues, the situations of transgender people in South Korea, talking about violence and loneliness, but also about empowerment.

For the two most recent collaborative projects, Music by Order and Noise Cancelling, Body Cancelling (both from 2024), KIRARA created the lyrics and music, on the basis of which jung then produced video collages consisting of recordings from real locations, 3D graphics and/or animations.

siren eun young jung
sirenjung.com
@sirenjung.com

KIRARA
https://kirararararararara.com
https://ebbmusic.eu/artists/kirara
@kirararararararara.com