KIKA cas is pleased to present Friends, a solo exhibition by Korean artist Bona Park to commemorate the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Japan and Korea. In Friends, Park presents works from her solo exhibition Whistlers at Gallery Chosun in Seoul in 2024. As an artist and writer, Park focuses on the boundaries between art and life as well as themes of labor in the art world. The exhibition explores friendships between women in their support and solidarity for one another, particularly those in WING, an organization that empowers former sex workers. Originally founded in 1953 to help war orphans and widows, WING has advocated for sex trade survivors and victims of violence since 1996. After Park discovered WING through an interview with their CEO, she wrote an article about their activities and built relationships with the women over meals and workshops. Park explains that the central theme of Whistlers is the dissolution of internal and external boundaries between the women in order for their friendship to flourish.

Sharing the same name as the exhibition title, Whistlers (2023) is a video piece that Park produced in collaboration with the women at a WING workshop. Twelve women stand in a line, continuously whistling as they take turns inhaling and exhaling each other’s breaths. How to Whistle (2024) came from a poem Park wrote in response to this performance, which she then embroidered onto T-shirts donated by her friends. In phwee phwee fweet fweet (2024), two actors read aloud six letters Park’s friends wrote to other friends, whispering an emotional intimacy that defies language and logic.

Park has retitled the exhibition to Friends for this iteration at KIKA cas, expanding on the concept of friendship between women to examine the close ties between Korea and Japan, as well as between the world and ourselves.