Art from four Asian cities
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Asia has increasingly become a major force in many different fields.
Though western culture may have dominated the world for the past several decades, experts say that eyes are turning to Asia.
To get a glimpse of up and coming Asian art, the Seoul Museum of Art is hosting the "City_net Asia 2009" project.
It is the fourth year of the biannual project which aims to analyze Asian art and introduce it to the world.
"Major art exhibitions used to be held in the western countries mainly, but many are hosted in Asia nowadays. It shows that the center of global culture is shifting to Asia," said Seoul Museum of Art Director Yoo Hee-young.
Four cities - Seoul, Tokyo, Beijing and Istanbul - are featured in this year's project.
Instead of having an overall director fuse the four different cultures into one theme, exhibits from each city were selected and brought here by their local curators so that each can display its unique cultural aspect.
In total, more than 100 exhibits including paintings, sculptures, photos, installations and videos by 40 artists are on display.
The exhibition starts with the Seoul section titled "Double Ax," symbolizing things that can be used to threaten others but could also hurt one's self.
Nine young Korean artists born from the 1960s to the 1980s express the paradoxical situations they encounter while living in a globalized world.
For example, Lee Byung-ho expresses a paradox through a boy (mannequin) he zipped up inside a vacuumed bag. Wanting to protect the boy from polluted air, he sucked out all the air around the boy, who as a result is suffocating to death.
Turkish and Chinese artists concentrate on their status in the world as their nations have recently grown and modernized economically.
Turkish artist Sener Ozmen gives an idea about how hard it is for an artist to be recognized by high-profile galleries like Tate Modern in London via a video work.
In it, two Turks in tuxedos wander around a desert on their donkeys in search for the "Road to Tate Modern."
A Chinese artist modified a photo of Beijing city by transforming the CCTV building which China takes pride in into a robot, raising doubts about the building's significance.
Meanwhile, Japanese artists seem to be beyond talking about modernization or globalization but rather have turned to their inner selves. "Although the exhibits from Tokyo were the most diverse, they hardly contained any social meanings," said exhibition curator Jo Ju-hyun.
The exhibition runs through Nov. 22 at Seoul Museum of Art in Seosomun-dong, central Seoul. The museum is closed on Mondays. Admission is 700 won. For more information, call (02) 2124-8800 or visit www.seoulmoa.org
By Park Min-young
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답글삭제아시아 4개 도시 미술전 Art from four Asian cities Asia has increasingly become a major force in many different fields. Though western culture may have domina..