Won Jy

Born in 1990 in Daejeon, South Korea.
Lives and works in Nîmes, France.

I am a visual artist of South Korean origin, based in Nîmes since 2016.
After graduating from the Daejeon High School of Arts in 2008, I completed two years of military service. In 2011, to support myself, I began selling items such as smartphone cases, notebooks, and paintings in the streets of Seoul. During this time, I became acutely aware of the issue of urban waste and was moved by the precarious lives of elderly people collecting recyclable materials to resell. This experience had a profound impact on my artistic practice, particularly in the choice and treatment of materials.

Key encounters later led me to pursue my studies in France, drawn by its vibrant artistic scene.
I arrived in Paris in 2014 and spent two years learning French while continuing to develop my practice. The summer of 2015 marked a turning point with the organization of a performative project, in which I explored the lives of the homeless and urban pigeons by sharing their daily realities on the streets of Paris. In 2016, I enrolled at the École supérieure des beaux-arts de Nîmes, where I continue to live and work.