This performance was presented in November 2004 at the 5th Gwangju Biennale, inside Exhibition Hall 5, and was documented throughout the exhibition period through video and photography. For this project, the artist created a fictional organization called KMDC (Korea Mix Dog Club) and carried it out in collaboration with two animal-welfare groups — 〈Areum-Pum〉 and 〈Bodumi〉, who work to promote responsible companion-animal culture. Together with these groups, the artist held over ten meetings to coordinate the project, which eventually involved more than fifty volunteers, including groomers and veterinarians.

Each morning during the exhibition period, approximately ten dogs selected from a local shelter (with the principle that only mixed-breed dogs would be included) were transported to a series of cages installed inside the hall. Visitors were invited to vote for the dogs, ranking them on the spot, and the daily results were recorded through mock award-ceremony photographs taken on a small podium placed in the corner of the space.

For the artist, the performance itself — along with the resulting photographs and video — became the final outcome of the project. For〈Areum-Pum〉and〈Bodumi〉, the project concluded with all participating shelter dogs successfully finding new homes during the exhibition. In this sense, audience participation functioned as an integral part of the project; however, at this stage, the audience’s role still remained within the production phase of the work rather than confronting a finalized conclusion.

What becomes compelling here is how different spheres of interest intersect and produce entirely different outcomes.

The artist parodied the countless dog-show competitions that rely on human-imposed standards such as “purity” and “pedigree” — practices that have little to do with respect for life or with the true meaning of “companion animals.” By placing this framework within the context of the Biennale — a format that had become a widespread trend in the art world at the time — the artist satirized the system itself.

International art biennales have long functioned as the most prominent events within the art world. Yet behind words like “best” and “largest” lies a hierarchical logic driven by authoritarian power. To determine what is “the greatest” or “the most beautiful” is, in reality, impossible; for such a judgment to occur, criteria must be established in advance. The moment such criteria are set, the power held by those who establish them — the so-called cultural authority — inevitably permeates the process.

When these standards begin to operate as absolute, they drift into a fascistic form of unilateral judgment. Focusing on this point, the artist appropriated the seemingly unrelated format of a dog contest and staged a fictional competition based on mixed-breed dogs — not purebreds — directly on the site of the Biennale, which traditionally symbolizes power within the art world.

This contest can be understood as a metaphor that reveals a fragment of the artist’s critical inquiry.

The project attempts to explore who establishes the standards that shape our era, how these standards function in our lives, and ultimately, how individuals — pressured by one-directional norms that are internalized as cultural symbols — can break free from unconscious acceptance. By sharing the cultural and everyday context of his time with viewers, the artist sought to search for clues through art and, through this process, to reflect on how art might realize its value within society.