MMCA HYUNDAI MOTOR SERIES 2018: CHOIJEONGHWA
– Blooming Matrix
5 September 2018 – 10 February 2019
MMCA Seoul
The National Museum
of Modern and Contemporary Art will present MMCA Hyundai Motor Series 2018: CHOIJEONGHWA
- Blooming Matrix from Wednesday, 5 September through Sunday, 10 February
2019, in Museum Madang and Gallery 5 of MMCA Seoul.
Artist
CHOIJEONGHWA(b. 1961) works in a wide range of installations utilizing
common, cheap, or discarded goods from everyday life, such as plastic baskets,
piggy banks, brooms, and balloons. Choi's methodology gives everyday consumable
goods new life as works of art, breaking the boundary between high-end art and
popular culture. Choi’s work is a metaphor for post-1990s Korean society, borne
of rapid economic growth.
CHOIJEONGHWA's works
were featured in such group exhibitions as Museum (1987), Sunday Seoul (1990), and Show Show Show (1992). Throughout
the 1990s, Choi designed spaces for youth that blended food, music,
exhibitions, performances, and seminars: Bar Ollo Ollo (1990), Space Ozone
(1991), and SAL Bar (1996) and Ggool(2010). Surrounded by Korean consumer
culture, which underwent dynamic changes in the 1990s, CHOIJEONGHWA drew the
club scene and popular culture into art, thereby weaving an intimate
relationship between contemporary art and popular culture. The unique sculpting
principles of the artist, who deciphered an era, were unfettered by mainstream
discourses, which were polarized between Minjung art and Modernism. The artist
not only expanded the limits of contemporary Korean art, but also garnered
attention in the international arena for works that captured both regionality
and universality.
Along with the
eponymous piece Blooming Matrix, this exhibition
presents Dandelion, Blooming Matrix, Ice Flower, and Young Flower.
Each work is a manifestation of the artist's intention to give meaning to
objects that have lost their functions and sublimate them into art. Working in
wood, steel, and cloth in addition to plastic, which has been representative of
his work thus far, the artist reveals an expanded materiality of objects. Blooming Matrix is a spatial installation wherein the artist
brings together objects that he has collected from different places to exist in
harmony. Through a forest of some 120 erect towers of flowers, in a space where
light and darkness contrast, the artist blends time and space and connects
heaven and earth, transforming the gallery into a space of silence and memory.
Dandelion, which will be
installed in Museum Madang, is the result of a project that elicited viewer
participation. Starting in March, the artist went around Seoul, Busan, and
Daegu for Gather Together, a public
art project for which he received donations of everyday objects from residents,
who joined to make art. The project accumulated approximately 7,000 pieces of
tableware that were no longer in use. These comprise the colossal sculpture Dandelion, which measures 9 meters in
height, and weighs 3.8 tons. The pots and pieces of tableware in Dandelion were no longer useful at home, but through
public participation, these mass consumer goods were transformed into material
for art. Dandelion elicits
communication between the viewer and contemporary artwork.
Young Flower, exhibited in
Gallery 5, features ornate silver and golden plastic children’s crowns.
Installed over a shiny mirrored surface, the object strains to climb seven
meters and falls repeatedly. The artist created the large crown that never
quite reaches the top to immortalize the young victims of the sinking of the Sewol ferry. The crown, placed on a
sheet of shiny mirror, is a motif that conveys the artist’s wish to honor the young
souls. The commemoration, which contains sorrow and regret, is revealed without
mention of specifics or modification, but through Choi's unique method of
expression.
In October, in conjunction with the
exhibition, the educational workshop Flower, Forest, Flower will be held for
families and groups of children. In another program, elderly Alzheimer’s
patients will meet the artist Choi Jeonghwa.
From Friday, 7 September through Sunday, 30 September,
ARTernoon Tea by CHOIJEONGHWA: Your Heart is my ART, a promotional event hosted
jointly by the MMCA and Grand Hyatt Seoul, will be held at the Gallery in the
lobby lounge of Grand Hyatt Seoul. The concept of the event is the meeting of
art and food, by the artist Choi Jeonghwa and the hotel's chefs. In conjunction
with the MMCA exhibition, the hotel will replace its existing Afternoon Tea
Buffet menu with a menu inspired by the works of CHOIJEONGHWA.
Director Bartomeu Marí of MMCA said, “In
this exhibition, which blurs the boundaries between the everyday and art,
between art and non-art, the viewer can explore the true nature of the creative
world of artist CHOIJEONGHWA. The familiar materials that comprise the artworks
will allow wide communication with the public, at the same time providing an
opportunity to expand the boundaries of contemporary Korean art.”
MMCA
Hyundai Motor Series
Hosted by the MMCA and sponsored by Hyundai
Motors, the MMCA Hyundai Motor Series is a decade-long annual project. Starting
in 2014, the project has sponsored one influential Korean artist each year. The
series was planned to present new attitudes and potential of contemporary
Korean art and bolster a class of prominent Korean artists.
By supporting influential artists who are
developing original worlds of creativity, the project seeks to reinforce
creative drive and provide promotional aid in Korea and abroad. At the end of
the ten years, viewers will have encountered the works of ten artists who have
different attitudes and senses, and they will be able to see for themselves the
current state and dynamism of contemporary Korean art.
The MMCA Hyundai Motor Series has
established itself as an important example of corporate sponsorship leading to
collaboration between culture and corporation, contributing greatly to the
prospects of Korea’s art scene.
□ General Telephone Inquiries: MMCA Seoul
02-3701-9500
