For the past two decades, the MMCA Art Bank - a subsidiary of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA) - has collaborated closely with contemporary Korean art, contributing to the expansion of Korea’s art ecosystem and revitalizing its public art. Since its inauguration in 2005, Art Bank has collected works in various media and formats and made them available to the public and institutions, striving to make art more accessible in Korean society and enhance its cultural value.
20th Anniversary Special Exhibition of Art Bank - Revisiting the Future: Evolving Forms and Ideas, held at MMCA Cheongju, traces the bank’s twenty-year journey and provides a comprehensive overview of the artistic assets and practices it has accumulated over the two decades. By assessing the bank’s major collections, loan and display records, and exhibition archives, this exhibition aims to document trends and shifts in contemporary Korean art and conduct a meticulous examination of its intricate dialogues with the times.
More than a mere retrospective summoning the past, this 20th anniversary special exhibition presents an invaluable opportunity to discuss the Art Bank’s role and value, and to contemplate the artistic journey that lies ahead - a discourse that we hope to expand upon.
Section 1. Revisiting the Future: Evolving Forms and Ideas explores how the “future” that the Art Bank conserved has “revisited” us and examines the various forms and ideas manifested in the artists’ works. Works made in the past, in fact, are each ingrained with the expectations their artists held for the future. Through a selection of the bank’s most experimental and provocative pieces, we question what meaning they hold in our present reality and how their forms and ideas have expanded into new aesthetics. The roughly fifty works spanning various media and styles, including painting, sculpture, video, and installation, allow visitors to relive art’s evolution over time. In particular, the experimental forays of artists who stepped beyond the norms of traditional art demonstrate contemporary art’s infinite expansiveness and possibilities, prompting us to reconsider and ruminate on what the “future,” seen from today’s perspective, truly means.
Section 2. Rethinking the Archive: Timestamps of the Art Bank presents the Art Bank’s 50 most frequently loaned works through QR codes and images. Among these, ten are on display, including pieces by Song Soo-nam, Sul Won-gi, and Kim Hyuck-jung. By focusing on major works that constantly interacted with the public through loans and exhibitions, this section provides a visual overview of Art Bank’s role in disseminating and popularizing contemporary art.
Also, a timeline of the bank’s history and key activities, accompanied by other contextual information, provides visitors with a comprehensive view of its journey over the past two decades. However, more importantly, this section reviews Art Bank’s track record as a bridge between art and society, reassessing the meaning and possibilities of public art.
Section 3. Remembered Futures: Urban Dialogues draws upon Art Bank’s archives to revisit select public projects and special exhibitions from a fresh perspective, featuring reinterpretations and transformative re-creations of individual artworks. These projects - once serving as intersections of art and urban life - have been reconfigured into new spatial and media conditions for this exhibition.
Alongside information from the bank’s archives placed throughout the exhibition space, the works reborn on digital screens and in multimedia spaces conjure past memories into the present, offering visitors a more immersive artistic experience. Inspired by the theme of “Remembered Futures,” this section reevaluates the ways in which cities and art have engaged and connected with one another, prompting a reconsideration of art’s social role and its long-term sustainability.
This 20th anniversary special exhibition provided Art Bank with an opportunity to reflect on the artistic assets and experiences it has accumulated over the past two decades. The bank vows to build upon this foundation and continue its role as a public institution advancing contemporary art.
For visitors, this exhibition offers an opportunity to explore the trajectory of contemporary art and its evolving artistic practices, inviting them to envision and pose questions about art’s future alongside the bank.
