The Penguin that goes to the Mountain

The Penguin that goes to the Mountain
5 June – 22 August 2010

85 Sanggal-dong, Giheung-gu
Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do
446-905 Korea

www.njpartcenter.kr

With The Penguin that goes to the mountain exhibition the Nam June Paik Art Center proposes imagining alternative ways to look at artistic production. Taking the title from a scene in Werner Herzog’s Encounters at the end of the world where a penguin heads toward an unknown mountain leaving the colony behind, this exhibition commemorates the promise inherent to artistic production that, not yet fully assimilated into established artistic discourse, resonates with Nam June Paik’s ability to challenge new territories and combine many often unrelated genres.

Artists are sometimes like the penguin and the “professional dreamers” working at the American McMurdo Station in Herzog’s film, when they choose to search for more than what given conditions have to offer by incontestably taking incalculable risks, venturing against the mainstream, and wandering off into unknown territory. Emulating the deep-sea-diver the film portrays in search of new organisms in the darkest depths of the oceans, this exhibition explores the potentialities that may lie below the surface of our reality. What networks, communities or engagements can emerge when these diverse and intensely individual beings are brought together into a shared environment? How will their works cohabitate and relate to visitors? What processes of production and installation may be observed emerging between all the different interlocutors?

The Penguin that goes to the Mountain will be an exciting journey from the ordered and well known to the broken up and disastrous. Embracing works beyond the visual arts, the exhibition presents practitioners that produce critical and demanding work often relating to the surreal and fictional – from ‘Wonderland’ to ‘Antarctica’. Deconstructing the art center’s existing space and previously defined exhibition criteria this exhibition pushes the boundaries of the working methodologies of all those involved in its preparation and reception – from the artists, curatorial and technical staff, to the gallery assistants, and even the audience. Like going down the (in)famous rabbit hole –a great adventure lies ahead that can be as fascinating as it can be disastrous. And the former is not necessarily better than the latter!

Penguins: Mano AHN, Sungeun CHANG, Eunphil CHO, Yeoja DDAN, Subin HEO, Intergate, Jaechoul JEOUNG, Dokyun KIM, Kimoon KIM, Minkyu KOH, Jihoi LEE, Jinwook MOON, Moowang MOON, Sohyun MOON, Adjong PARK, Seungwon PARK, post-EAT, Jinwoo RYU, Rhee SEI, Joonghyup SEO, Mongjoo SON, Hojun SONG, Vaemo, Donhwi YOUN
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The Nam June Paik Art Center is supported by Gyeonggi Cultural Foundation and Gyeonggi province.



Nam June Paik Art Center
85 Sanggal-dong, Giheung-gu,
Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do

446-905
Republic of Korea

T: + 82 (0) 31 201 8543

F: + 82 (0) 31 201 8515

chaeyoung@njpartcenter.kr