Currently the total number of works in MMCA's collection amounts to 7,840 (as of June 2016). For the past three decades since its relocation to a new building in Gwacheon, MMCA has acquired 5,834 works of art, which comprise 74% of its entire collection. This year marks the 30th anniversary of MMCA Gwacheon, and thereby in its celebration MMCA presents a momentous exhibition entitled “As the Moon Waxes and Wanes” whose focal point lies in its collection of artworks, which is the proud output of its history. This exhibition sheds light on the life cycle and destiny of a work of art that proceed by the dialectical course from the conditions that prompt the creation of an artwork to the production, circulation, acquisition, utilization, preservation, death, and rebirth of it. The exhibition also conducts in-depth inquiries into various issues with respect to the way that present-day artworks are being accommodated within the institution of art.
Main
Exhibition
I. Interpret (Part 1: Expansion / Part 2: Relation)
"Interpret - Expansion" explores multilayered ways of communication through works of art by commissioning artists, curators, and researchers from diverse fields to create new works on the basis of the Museum's collection. Also, with the subthemes such as "museum," "meta-structure," "anthropology," "performativity," and "modern history," it attempts to define the interactive relationship between the artist and his or her work and to extend the interpretative practice of present-day artworks. In "Interpret - Relation," consisting of highlights of the Collection, the one-on-one comparisons between 16 sets of works encourage viewers' intellectual participation, which enables them to have a more creative appreciation of each work. As a result, they are given an opportunity to ponder upon the time/space-transcending relations among the work of art, the artist, and the viewer.
Venue:
Circular Gallery 1,
common-use spaces
※ The exhibition <Part1(Expansion) of Interpret> closed on Feb.12. (Gallery 1,2 and Main Hall (1st floor))
II. Circulate (Part 1: The Other Side / Part 2: Post-life)
"Circulate: The Other Side" tells the behind stories of works of art focusing on some works selected from the Museum's collection. The related facts and additional materials accompanying the exhibits are to enable viewers to see the significances and values of the works from new perspectives. Contemporary works of art themselves are not fixed but are subject to constant development. "Circulate: Post-life" delves into the cardinal nature of contemporary art, namely, its openness to change by examining a variety of issues in relation to the work of art: representation, remaking, commission, transformation and restoration, and metabasis and reproduction. It also observes different ways of presenting a work of art by accessing the genre characteristics, the distinct characteristic with regard to content, and the intervention of the artist.
Venue:
Galleries 3 & 4 (2nd floor)
III. Re-light
The conception of "Re-light" was triggered by the existence of those works that have not been shown since their acquisitions according to the collection database. The exhibits have been selected from those works whose longevity in the storage is considerable without being shown despite the fact that they comprise the majority of the Collection, and here the selected works are reunited with the current contexts of their artists. While focusing on the classification codes of the Museum's collection, "Re-light" reenacts the process of a work of art's transition - its movement from the artist to a museum's collection system through which it is reclassified and registered. The works acquired during the early years of MMCA Gwacheon from 1986 to the 1990s bring to light the aspects of the period in the history of Korean art that witnessed the diversification of mediums and the active discussions on modernity.
Venue:
Galleries 5 & 6 (3rd floor)
Separate
Projects
Performance Project
The opening performance entitled "The Pacific Theater" is organized by Kim Namsoo and consists of temporal-and-spatial resonance-oriented dance, music, and reenactment performances, which are conceived based on Nam June Paik's The More The Better. Among other performances to be presented throughout the exhibition period so as to expand the cognitive and interpretative horizons of MMCA's collection are Fraud Tectonics by Kim Ayoung where the space of MMCA Gwacheon is defined as a scenography, which is re-presented into human voice, 24hr Lecture Performance: MMCA's Collection and the Industrial History organized by Lee youngjoon where a variety of discourses are unfolded with regard to works in the MMCA's collection, Docentology by Hong sungmin in which shamans explain the exhibits in a non-linguistic way and Talks on Postwar Korean/Contemporary/Art in the dark by Lim Geunjun AKA Lee Chungwoo
Venue:
Inside the galleries/common-use spaces (all floors)
