Ecological Sense

Artists: Rice Brewing Sisters Club, Listen to the city, Minha Park, Park Sunmin, Nam June Paik, Anaïs Tondeur, Jiyoung Yoon, Soyo Lee, Jenin Kii, Eunji Cho

Curated by Jeonghwa Goo
 

The Nam June Park Art Center presents a special exhibition Ecological Sense from July 5 to September 22, 2019. It raises doubts about the undeserved status of human beings who have held massive influence over the earth’s ecosystems, proposing a new kind of sense required for symbiosis.

The current age called Anthropocene by many scientists is addressing the emerging realities of a post-nature world such as climate change and environmental crisis. Once the stuff of sci-fi movies, the apocalypse of global extinction has made its way into our life—including our daily meals and fine particulate matter we inhale during our commutes to work—and redefines it. Constantly growing mountains of garbage, oceans polluted by plastics and radioactive materials, and aggravating desertification are now part of our environment and everyday scenes. Humans, who are placed at the top of the hierarchy of earth inhabitants, obtain information only from capitalized platforms, live only space and time confined by media, and consume only senses given to them. They keep on using an earth instruction manual saying that you can bury everything underground just for the sustainability of humankind. The exhibition Ecological Sense begins with these questions: then, is it reasonable to trust them, this top predator with highly biased sensibilities, with the future of the earth? And what is the ecological prospect that they ought to have for the survival of all living organisms on the planet including themselves?

To answer these questions, the participating artists try to find a new ecological position of humankind in the relationship with other inhabitants, with the shared understanding that the earth is a limited system. This sense, which also means an ‘ecological literacy,’ comprises elements of eco-friendly sensibility which modern individuals should recover, staying away from increasingly being absorbed in information transfer and technological accumulation in the segmented society and beginning to consider the whole global environment. Like the philosopher who said he would plant an apple tree if he knew the world would end tomorrow, we hope viewers will be able to turn around the corner of catastrophe and apocalypse, sharing each other’s energy for change and connected to new other inhabitants on this planet.

Workshop: Fermentcult (Rice Brewing Sisters Club)

1. DIYNurukCapsule
Learning how microbes work for us and how to make nuruk(Korean traditional fermentation starter).

2. FermentFiction: Writing Workshop
Conceiving and writing a story crossing the human/non-human boundary using the concept of fermentation

3. Social Fermentation LAB for Jjal-pickers
Collective jjal jupgi for jjal collectors

Creative Summer

1. Field Notes: The Mushroom at the End of the World
Artist: Soyo Lee
Date/Venue: August 4 & 11, 2-4pm (2 times in a row)

Description: This creative workshop explores the world of fungi through observation, collection and visualization. Referencing The Mushroom at the End of the World by anthropologist Anna Tsing, the participants also engage in discussions about symbiosis in this ever-speciating world.

2. Imagin Urban Ecology
Artist: Listen to the City
Date/Venue: August 8 & 15, 2-4pm

Content: In this quiz-based workshop, participants will examine the relationship between the ecologies and daily lives in the city where they live, in collaboration with the artists.

3. Sending Messages to the Universe
Artist: Minha Park
Date/Venue: August 9 & 16, 10am-1pm

Content: After viewing the gathered messages or time capsules that humans have sent out into space, participants create their family’s time capsule by reorganizing what they appreciate among them.