Produced on the occasion of the exhibition Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, The Dream of the Audience, at the Generali Foundation, Vienna, 14 May–15 August, 2004.
From the mid-1970s until her death at age 31 in 1982, Korean-born artist Theresa Hak Kyung Cha created a rich body of conceptual art that explored displacement and loss. Her works included artists’ books, mail art, performance, audio, video, film, and installation. Although grounded in French psychoanalytic film theory, her art is also informed by far-ranging cultural and symbolic references, from shamanism to Confucianism and Catholicism. Her collage-like book Dictée, which was published posthumously in 1982, is recognized as an influential investigation of identity in the context of history, ethnicity and gender.
Preface by Dietrich Karner, introduction by Sabine Breitwieser, texts by Constance M. Lewallen, Lawrence Rinder, Trinh T. Minh-ha and Bernadette Hak Eun.