The Future is Now!
August 28–November 29, 2015
Friche la Belle de Mai
41 rue Jobin
13003 Marseille
France
www.mmca.go.kr
www.lafriche.org
Celebrating the 130th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Korea and France, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA) proudly presents the touring exhibition The Future is Now! at La Friche belle de la mai (La Friche) in Marseille, France, from August 28 to November 29, 2015.
The Future is Now!, curated by Soojung YI, presents MMCA’s New Media Art collection with the aim of reflecting on the “futures” by analyzing New Media Art from its founding in 1986 to the present day. The exhibition includes not only works from the museum collections, but also a vast range of audiovisual materials.
It may seem paradoxical, but if you dream of the future, you need to focus completely on the present, because the future all depends on today’s choices, decisions and actions. This is the meaning of the title of the exhibition, taken from the famous words the artist Nam June Paik used to describe his idea of the future. We know that the first works of New Media Art, produced at a time when there was little understanding of this new form of expression, are the foundation for the works produced today, a fact that shows the extent to which today’s actions lay the foundations for our future.
In this exhibition at La Friche, a total of 41 works will be displayed, including the existing works in the exhibition and 14 new works to the new media collection at MMCA.
The Future is Now! is presented under a total of four subject themes: Section 1: “Pioneers of New Media Art in Korea,” Section 2: “Combining Art and Technology: Age of Challenges and Experiments,” Section 3: “Emergence of the Internet and Expansion,” and Section 4: “Culture Creative in Digital Ages.”
This exhibition offers a general summary of the overall flow of media art in Korea, shedding a chronological view of the museum’s collected works from 1960s to present, presenting works by prominent media artists including Nam June Paik, Duck-jun Kwak and Hyun-ki Park, and Soungui Kim.
The Future is Now! includes works by Korean artists who mainly worked on the international stage, including TV Magnet (1960s) and Zen for TV (1963) by Namjune Paik and Portrait 78 (1978) by Duckjun Kwak, the recipient of 2002 Korea Artist Prize, as well as works by Korean artists who worked in Korea, such as Untitled (1991) by Hyun-ki Park. Also on view are early pieces by artists born in 1960s, including Sunghoon Kong and Taejin Yook, who participated in the Young Artists exhibition series in 1992, which demonstrate the experimental works that were being carried out in early 1990s, when integration of technology and art stirred about thriving experimental practices. In addition, video works by Seungwook Koh, Heungsoon Im, Minouk Lim, Sekwon Ahn and Kiil Lee capture the artist’s voices towards society and indicate that video had already become an essential core in the visual culture. Meanwhile, in 2000s, Jungjoo Jeong, Kijong Zin, Yongseok Oh and Jungjoo An shed light on Korean history and interpreted wars and histories of the world through social cultural perspectives, capturing their voices through video and installation art.
Moon Kyungwon and Jeon Joonho worked together with specialists in diverse fields including architecture, culture, design and fashion, showing the social function and role of art through their video and installation works, while Bang & Lee’s video and installation works take an aesthetically beautiful approach to the idea of media and its possibility as well as its perils. Sound artist Kichul Kim presents his sound installation works, and Everywhere’s media art works offer a human touch by bringing together analogue sensibility with technology. These works of various mediums capture diverse cultural contexts, proposing the meaning and possibility of New Media Art while presenting the present status and the future of new media art in Korea.
The exhibition opens on August 28th and is open to public from October 25th, 2016. MMCA hopes to proclaim Korean media art and artists to Marseille and the rest of the world through this exhibition, and seeks to promote artistic exchanges between Korea and France, as well as to maintain friendly relations between MMCA and La Friche.
For more details, check the MMCA website or La Friche website.
For general inquiries: National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul,
T +02 3701 9500
