미디어 시티 서울 2010 어떨지?

Media City Seoul to seek trust in media art

 

Among art biennales and fairs set to take place in Korea’s major cities in September, one in Seoul will shed light on media art.

“Media City Seoul 2010,” one of the few international biennials in the world to focus on media art, will kick off on Sept. 6 at four venues in central Seoul, including Seoul Museum of Art, Gyunghuigung Annex of Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul Museum of History and Simpson Memorial Hall in Ewha Girl’s High School.

Established in 2000, the biennale hosted by Seoul Metropolitan Government and organized by Seoul Museum of Art aims to strengthen the image of Seoul as a capital of technological development. It had changed the name to “Seoul International Media Biennale” in its second year, but returned to its original name this year, its sixth.

“We did not want to give off an image as a one-time event by using the name biennale. So we are going back to the original name, to ruminate about how we had aimed to turn the whole city into an exhibition venue,” said Kim Sun-jung, artistic director of the event and vice director of Artsonje Center, at a press conference on Wednesday.

A man participating in Blast Theory’s outdoor project “Ulrike and Eamon compliant” at the 2009 Venice Biennale listens to orders given through his cellphone. Media City Seoul

The event may not cover the entire city but it does cover the central Seoul area around Gyunghuigung and Deoksugung.

“The event used to take place only in Seoul Museum of Art but expanded to using three more venues. This year’s Media City Seoul will be the best in both quantity and quality,” said Yoo Hee-Young, director of Seoul Museum of Art.

This year’s theme is “Trust.”

“Media and individual lives have become inseparable. Overflowing sources of media continue to redefine and alter everyday life and we have to choose what to see and what to trust. Now would be a timely moment to reexamine our basic notion of media,” said Kim.

Three curators -- Clara Kim, director and curator of Gallery at REDCAT in Los Angeles, Nicolaus Schafhausen, director of Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam, Fumihiko Sumitomo, curator at Arts Initiative Tokyo -- selected works by 46 artists from 21 countries.

Some of the participating artists will be familiar to media art fans, such as Apichatpong Weerasethakul, the Palme D’Or winner at this year’s Cannes International Film Festival.

Other names, however, might not immediately ring any bells because they are not known much as media artists. Instead of using new media, they use various forms of media, including “old media” like magazines, newspapers, photographs, urban detritus and sounds.

As well as indoor screenings of the exhibits, the event will also experiment with outdoor projects which require visitor participation. In one interactive artwork titled “Ulrike and Eamon complaint” by Blast Theory visitors have to wander around the Jeongdong area following orders given to them through distributed cellphones.

The outdoor projects are supported by the British Council.

Media City Seoul 2010 runs from Sept. 6 to Nov. 17. Admission is free. Audio guides are available in Korean and English. For details, visit www.mediacityseoul.org.

By Park Min-young  (claire@heraldm.com)

 

전시 [플랫폼 인 기무사] 리뷰

알고는 있지만 가볼 수는 없었던 곳.

옛 기무사 터에서 전시가 열리고 있습니다 ^-^

전시 뿐 만 아니라 기무사를 둘러보는 묘한 재미까지 있답니다;;ㅋ

 

근데; 다 보려면 좀 다리가 아파요 ㅠ-ㅠㅎㅎ

 

Art fills former military spy command

 

The former Defense Security Command complex, situated in Sogyeok-dong, central Seoul used to have an icy, autocratic aura. Nicknamed Kimusa, an abbreviation of the command's Korean name, the complex itself was feared by many Koreans during the dictatorships of the 1970s and 1980s. Years after, as the notoriety gradually faded away from people's minds, the command relocated to Gwacheon, on the outskirts of the capital, in November 2006. The remaining complex, including the main building designated as a national cultural heritage site, waits to be remodeled as a branch of The National Museum of Contemporary Art in Gwacheon by 2012. To fill the void until then, Korean curator Kim Sun-jung and Mami Kataoka, chief curator of the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, host this year's Platform -- a contemporary art festival been held annually since 2006 -- there, titled "Platform in Kimusa." The subtitle is 'Void of Memory.' "It refers to how Kimusa was a place everyone knew but not everyone could enter. It is in, but also not in our memories at the same time," Kim said. "We selected the artists and their exhibits being fully aware of the history of the venue. The works could appear extra gloomy and dark." Entering the main building, one would immediately realize that Kim did not lie. The dim setting and curious exhibits remind of a scene from a horror movie. In one of the first rooms in the main building, a woman dressed in pale beige hanbok roams around, singing a song so slowly that it almost sounds like mourning. Beside her, odd-looking dishes are piled up. This is Lee Sook-young's performance art "Mother Country and Freedom is." "The dishes are called 'Infinite Yin energy amplifying furniture.' Kimusa had been overly packed with rough male spirits over the years. I wanted to purify it with female spirits before it turns into an art museum. The woman is singing Kimusa's traditional martial song in her own style," Lee said. Creepy? Now, if you are really willing to fully enjoy this peculiar exhibition, it would be smart to wear your most comfortable sneakers. There are nearly 200 works to see, not to mention that the complex is quite large and dusty. The exhibition runs in four buildings -- the main building, the dining hall, the annex building and the settlement house. The organizers left the buildings the way they were preserved. Paints have scraped off from the walls, doors are squeaky and some windows have been shattered on the floors. But hopefully once you get used to the eerie ambience and the musty basement odor, you will realize that you are standing in a building full of interesting works by more than 100 artists. "There are mainstream artists, less famous artists, artists recommended by other artists and curators, as well as international artists participating. We did not separate them but rather mixed them together. You know, even when you go into the same store, it feels different according to what street you found it at. We wanted to give the visitors that unique experience with artworks," said Kim. For example, world renowned installation artist Lee Bul's four-meter-high work "Aubade," which talks about the collapse of Utopia, is placed in the auditorium of the main building with a collection of other works. But do not be mistaken, as some non-mainstream or international artists' works are no less interesting. In Jung Yoon-suk's "The Home of Stars," visitors can find photos of former presidents Roh Tae-woo and Chun Doo-hwan in military uniforms. The photos were in their "home," Kimusa, as they used to serve there. Swedish artist Magnus Bartas shows a video of Korean actress Choi Eun-hee and her husband, director Sin Sang-ok, who were kidnapped to North Korea. He filmed the footage of North Korea himself while he was traveling there, and added some existing documentary films. Thy Van Tran, a Vietnamese artist, carved beautiful patterns on half of a piano and scraped off all the wood on the other half to express the identity of her country, which had been a former French colony. "Platform in Kimusa" runs through Sept. 25 at the former DSC complex in Sogyuk-dong, central Seoul. It opens at 2 p.m., and only docent tours are available during the day, starting at 2 p.m., 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. Reservations are required. Visitors can look around freely from 5-9 p.m., following the guiding lights that were specially installed for nighttime visitors. Admissions (including entrance fee for entering Artsonje Center) are 8,000 won for adults and 4,000 won for students. For more information, visit www.platformseoul.org or call (02) 733-8945. (claire@heraldm.com) By Park Min-young