Into the Rhythm: From Score to Contact Zone

The 2024 ARKO Art Center & OnCurating international collaborative exhibition, Into the Rhythm: From Score to Contact Zone is co-curated by ARKO Art Center and OnCurating, a non-profit organization based in Zurich, Switzerland. Prompted by ARKO Art Center's invitation to OnCurating, the exhibition explores the art museum as a vibrant contact zone, where diverse encounters between people, actions, and situations take shape. 

Into the Rhythm: From Score to Contact Zone invites viewers into a time and space shaped by communal rhythm. Rhythm is not only the principle behind breathing and the beating of our hearts but also an invisible force that flows like energy, fueling vitality and the affect circulating among people. This exhibition examines musical and bodily rhythms, as well as the way in which rhythm spreads and circulates energy through shared experiences, expanding into collective and social rhythms—in other words, the amassed energy that encourages solidarity.

The eleven participating artists offer reactivated rhythms that depart from the repetitive patterns of daily life, offering new movements and interactions with others. These rhythm-experiences invite a fresh perspective on the repetitive everyday actions and systems, re-engaging in a more conscious light. Breaking free from notions of time and space that are bound by capitalism, the exhibition suggests ritualistic participation, festival-like immersion, and solitary acts of discovering a new rhythm with alternate speed and pattern. 

The museum is activated as a gathering site for various encounters, with the scores activated within the exhibition space, and Workshop Week generating energy that flows throughout the museum, both inside and out, encouraging active viewer participation through performances, sound works, and talks. The exhibition proposes the participants to enter a new time and space in which rhythms of festival and change are instilled in the everyday timeline. 

The exhibition brings people together. The act of participation opens the door to the impossibility/possibility of new encounters and contacts and exposes us to different relationships. This can be the first step toward engaging with others and eventually reaching mutual understanding. In the museum, a space of invitation, participants do not simply remain passive but become active agents who create exchanges and communal experiences. Through participation, individuals foster connections that advocate the well-being of others, caring for one another. 

Participating artists: Small Projects for Coming Communities, Maya Minder, !Mediengruppe Bitnik, San Keller, Sohn Younwon, Stirnimann-Stojanovic, Yagwang, Yo Daham, Tangerine Collective, Paloma Ayala, Elisabeth Eberle. Collaborations: Green Recipe Lab, Re#sister Korea, Louise the Women, art parenting social club, Piece of Peace, Baruch Gottlieb & Sakrowski, Eunbeen Ha, jongdarjung.

Curated by: ARKO Art Center—Jade Keunhye Lim (General Director), Haena Noh (Curator) / OnCurating (partner organization)—Dorothee Richter (Curator), Ronald Kolb (Curator). Hosted by: Arts Council Korea Sponsors: Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, Embassy of Switzerland in the Republic of Korea, Swiss Fund Korea.

Events
Workshop week (opening): September 26, 2:30–7pm
OnCurating / !Mediengruppe Bitnik × Baruch Gottlieb, Sakrowski 

Workshop week (day two): September 27, 1–7:25pm
Maya Minder / Paloma Ayala / Yo Daham

Workshop week (day three): September 28, 1–7:25pm
Elisabeth Eberle × Louise the Women / Younwon Sohn × Re#sister Korea / Yagwang

Workshop week (day four): September 29, 1–6:15pm
OnCurating / San Keller / Tangerine Collective