국립현대미술관

For a long time, humans have viewed objects as tools to make life easier, taking raw materials from nature and constantly designing and producing things. This modern design thinking has led to a world full of discarded objects, and people have come to think of things as objects.

What Things Dream About challenges this convention and expands the concept of objects through contemporary art and design practices. The exhibition is organized into three subthemes. First, “World of Objects” deconstructs objects as materials or substances, transforms them into other senses for us to recognize that they are all around us; second, “Invisible Relations” confirms that objects are not just objects to be used by humans, but important agents that have a profound impact on human life. Finally, “What Kind of Future” is a place to dream of the impossible through objects that transcend existing categories, time, and space.

In the second half of the 20th century, philosophers were troubled by “man is the measure of all things” anthropocentricism, designated animals, plants, technology, and all-encompassing objects “non-humans” and emphasized the ethics of symbiosis. In line with this posthumanism trend, the exhibition proposes to look at objects as beings that create this world together with humans, and provides an opportunity to think 'beyond humans' through a shift in artistic thinking.