A More Perfect Day: Collection of Mudam Luxembourg
13 April–23 June 2013
Artsonje Center
(144-2, Sokeuk-dong) 87 Yulgok-ro 3-gil Jongno-gu
Seoul 110-200, South Korea
Hours and location:
2 · 3F: Tuesday–Sunday 11am–7pm
Lounge: Monday–Sunday, 10am–7pm
Artsonje Center is pleased to present A More Perfect Day: Collection of Mudam Luxembourg, an exhibition of the collection from Mudam Luxembourg, Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean.
While we encounter moments of hope and optimism as well as doubt and despair in our daily lives, we keep on living, expecting a better tomorrow. Under the theme of utopia, the exhibition at Artsonje Center consists of thirty works by nineteen artists and two collectives from the Mudam collection in various media, including installation, painting, photography and video. Its concept raises the utopian question of the quest for a better world, in a society in which relations are becoming increasingly complex. The artworks respond in diverse ways and encourage visitors to reflect about what it means to have a perfect life.
The title of the exhibition is taken from Sylvie Blocher’s video, A More Perfect Day, which features Barack Obama’s famous autobiographical speech from his first presidential election campaign performed as a song by the musician David Bichindaritz. It casts the question of individual identity vs. a more perfect community, or ideal solidarity.
The exhibition also presents a neon installation and video projection by Su-Mei Tse, who represented Luxembourg at the Venice Biennale in 2003 and received the Golden Lion Award. Other works include Christoph Büchel’s video projection originally created for the Sydney Biennale in 2008, showing rehearsals of a punk song performed by senior ladies; African-American artist Kara Walker’s installation Darkytown Rebellion, a theater of silhouette and colors dealing with race, gender, and identity; 2000 Turner Prize winner Wolfgang Tillmans’ work Rachel Auburn & son and Bulgarian artist Nedko Solakov’s large-scale installation The Truth (The Earth is Plane, The World is Flat).
On the lounge of the venue, Tobias Putrih recreates an installation work, consisting of convertible mobile structures that invite the audience to participate. As a hybrid of sculpture and furniture, the elements can be assembled to form shelves, chairs and other furniture or configured to suit the available space. Pierre Bismuth screens The Jungle Book Project, an adaptation of Disney’s animated classic from 1967, in which the characters speak in 19 different languages taken from the different language versions of the original film. Also on view are video works by Antoine Prum and Jean-Louis Schuller.
The exhibition A More Perfect Day: Collection of Mudam Luxembourg extends the exchanges that South Korea and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg have maintained for the last fifty years in the diplomatic and economic fields to the realm of culture. Indeed, cultural cooperation on this scale has never taken place between the two countries before.
Artists
Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Michael Ashkin, Pierre Bismuth, Sylvie Blocher, Christoph Büchel, Masaya Chiba, Alain Declercq, Damien Deroubaix, Jesper Just, Michel Majerus, Gaston Damag & Manuel Ocampo, Robert & Shana ParkeHarrison, Antoine Prum, Tobias Putrih, Jean-Louis Schuller, Nedko Solakov, Wolfgang Tillmans, Su-Mei Tse, Kyoichi Tsuzuki, Kara Walker, Franz West
Curators
Sunjung Kim, Hyejin Lim (Samuso)
Enrico Lunghi, Marie-Noëlle Farcy (Mudam)
Press Artsonje Center
press [at] samuso.org / T +82 2 733 8948 / www.artsonje.org
Press Mudam Luxembourg
presse [at] mudam.lu / T +352 45 37 85 633 / www.mudam.lu
