Young-jun Tak: Choreography Film Series
Schedule
Thu Jan 08 2026 at 10:00 am to 09:00 pm
UTC-08:00Location
The Polygon Gallery | North Vancouver, BC
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The Polygon Gallery is pleased to present the Canadian premiere screenings of Young-jun Tak’s choreography film series guest curated by Ann Webb. Combining elements of video art and short experimental documentary, each 20-minute single-channel film explores themes of presence and absence, shifting between different settings.These films are part of an ongoing series that will include seven in total, each relating to a day of the week. The most recent work, Love Was Taught Last Friday (2025), combines traditional woodcarving practice with contemporary dance, searching for harmony in intergenerational exchange. The film will have its Canadian premiere at The Polygon Gallery on January 22, 2026.
About the Films
Wish You a Lovely Sunday (2021)
Single channel HD video, colour, stereo sound
Duration: 18:45
The first film in Tak’s choreography series boldly juxtaposes two distinct spatial settings: a church and a queer club. Two choreographers and two dancers were paired to create original choreography tailored to the church “Kirche am Südstern” and the queer club “SchwuZ” in Berlin, respectively. Each pair worked with a different Bach piano piece for four hands. After days of rehearsals and the completion of their choreographies, the assigned venues were unexpectedly swapped. The participants were unaware of the exact location where they would perform until the day of filming. As a result, they had to adapt their choreographies to the unique architectural features and atmospheres of the new locations.
Love Your Clean Feet on Thursday (2023)
Single channel 4K/HD video, colour, stereo sound
Duration: 18:53
The second film in the choreography series challenges the conventional hyper-binary notions of gender through queer male bodies and movements. It juxtaposes two contrasting representations: the hypermasculinity of Spanish Legion soldiers during their spectacular Maundy Thursday ritual, carrying a life-sized crucifix in Málaga during Holy Week, and the hyper-femininity revered in Kenneth MacMillan’s ballet Manon (1974), where male dancers repeatedly lift and carry the eponymous female protagonist in Act 2, Scene 1. Alternating between these two situations, the film follows six male dancers performing choreography inspired by the ballet scene in Berlin’s popular gay cruising forest, Grunewald. Their movements attempt to bridge the gap between these seemingly different yet strangely similar gender presentations.
Love at First Sight on Monday (2024)
Single channel 4K/HD video, colour, stereo sound
Duration: 19:59
The third film draws inspiration from Lars Mytting’s acclaimed romantic novel The Bell in the Lake (2019). Set in a remote Norwegian village in 1880, the novel tells a love triangle story involving a 19-year-old local girl, a newly assigned pastor, and a German architect. Their lives are intertwined with a legend about the Sister Bells of a medieval stave church and the sweeping modernization of the country. This film explores the series’ recurring core theme and the most powerful belief: love. It echoes the nature of legendary, mythological, and transcendent love stories passed down through generations, reimagined here in a choreographic context. Two late-teenage female dancers share their parents’ love stories through dance, performed in the Lom stave church in Norway to Edvard Grieg’s piano solo Wedding Day at Troldhaugen. The recorded dance at the church is then shown separately to two male dancers, each of whom develops their own choreography in response. On the day of filming, set inside a retired jumbo aircraft, the two male dancers present their choreographies to each other. A male choreographer on-site combines these into a pas de deux (or duet), accompanied by Grieg’s song The Sweetness of a First Meeting, sung by a countertenor.
About the Artist
Young-jun Tak was born 1989, in Seoul, South Korea and lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Tak studied English Language and Literature, as well as Cross-Cultural Studies. Upcoming projects include at Seo-Seoul Museum of Art, the 4th Gangneung International Art Festival and SONGEUN in Seoul. Recent solo exhibitions include at Galerie Nordenhake – Salon Kant. (Berlin, 2025); palace enterprise (Copenhagen, 2025); PHILIPPZOLLINGER (Zurich, 2024); COMA (Sydney, 2024); Atelier Hermès (Seoul, 2024); Julia Stoschek Foundation (Berlin, Düsseldorf, 2023); Wanås Konst (Knislinge 2023); O—Overgaden (Copenhagen, 2023). He has participated in international group exhibitions such as at the 14th Taipei Biennial (2025); the 8th Singapore Biennale (2025); KINDL – Center for Contemporary Art (Berlin, 2025); the 4th Bangkok Art Biennale (2024); the 3rd St.Moritz Art Film Festival (2024); The High Line (New York, 2023); the 5th Chicago Architecture Biennial (2023); the 16th Lyon Biennale (2022); the 11th Berlin Biennale (2020), the 15th Istanbul Biennial (2017) among many others. He received the “Grand Prize” at the 24th SONGEUN Art Award (Seoul, 2024), the “Love at First Sight Prize” at the 3rd St.Moritz Art Film Festival (2024), and the “TOY Berlin Masters Award” at the 9th Berlin Masters (2021). Tak’s work is part of Burger Collection (Hong Kong, Zurich), Servais Family Collection (Brussels), Julia Stoschek Collection (Dusseldorf), Laurent Fiévet Collection (Paris), and the Collection of Seoul Museum of Art, Parkseobo Foundation (Seoul), and Sunpride Foundation (Hong Kong). www.youngjuntak.net
About the Curator
Known for her commitment to creative collaboration and public engagement, Ann Webb has held key positions with some of Canada’s leading art and cultural institutions including the Vancouver Art Gallery, Royal Ontario Museum, Canadian Art Foundation and The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery. She has curated innovative programs and exhibitions, organized artist and curatorial residencies, published a contemporary visual art magazine, and founded and curated North America’s only documentary film festival devoted to visual art and artists. Ann has collaborated with a wide network of international artists, galleries, filmmakers, writers, curators and collectors. A few of the many artists and cultural figures with whom Ann has worked include Marina Abramović, Hoor Al-Qasimi, Sara Angelucci, Daniel Baumann, Bill Burns, Douglas Coupland, Isaac Julien, and Sarah Thornton. In all that she does, her work reflects a deep belief in the power of art to foster dialogue and connect people to ideas and each other. Born in Toronto, Ann divides her time between Vancouver and Berlin.
Generously Supported by
Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen
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Where is it happening?
The Polygon Gallery, 105 Carrie Cates Ct, North Vancouver, BC V7M 3J4, CanadaEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
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