CIVILIZATION:
THE WAY WE LIVE NOW
18 Oct 2018 – 17 Feb 2019
MMCA Gwacheon
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The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea presents Civilization: The Way We Live Now from Thursday, October 18, 2018, through Sunday, February 17, 2019, at
MMCA Gwacheon.
Civilization:
The Way We Live Now examines
multiple aspects of contemporary civilization through photographs, showcasing
over 300 works by 135 artists from 43 countries in Asia, Australia, Europe,
Africa, and North and South America. In addition to globally renowned artists
such as Candida Höfer, Thomas Struth, Olivo Barbieri, Edward Burtynsky, and
Wang Qingsong, the exhibition introduces works by Korean artists KDK (Kim
Dokyun), Kim Taedong, Jason Sangik Noh, Noh Suntag, Jung Yeondoo, Jo Choonman,
Che Onejoon, and Han Sungpil. This exhibition is the first world-scale
photography exhibition since The Family
of Man (MoMA, 1955) to present a comprehensive overview of contemporary
civilization, with a tour exhibition scheduled in 10 international museums
including the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing (March 2019); the National
Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia (September 2020); and the Museum of
European and Mediterranean Civilisations in Marseille, France (January 2021),
after the MMCA Gwacheon exhibition.
Civilization:
The Way We Live Now offers a
retrospective of the 25 years of global civilization and its process since
the early 1990s, with a focus on the collective behaviors and achievements that
have largely abated in the era of individualism. Without denying individualism or
individualist culture, the exhibition spotlights things and values shared en
masse. Through photographs taken from around the world, the exhibiting artists
observe, record, and interpret “the way we live now”: where and how we live,
how we work and play, how we transport ourselves and things, how we cooperate
and compete, how we love, and how we start wars. Capturing workplaces such as
banks, government agencies, prisons, and schools, the photographers each
present their own perspectives on our civilization.
The exhibition presents the various artistic perspectives divided into
eight sections: “Hive,” “Alone Together,” “Flow,” “Persuasion,” “Control,”
Rupture,” “Escape,” and “Next.”
The first section, “Hive,” reflects on the organic urban development
and expansion led by man. Cyril Porchet’s Untitled
depicts a frame full of people gathered like a colony of insects, while Candida Höfer’s Augustiner Chorherrenstift Sankt Florian III 2014 captures the epitome of a human hive, a
grand library built on the collective effort of man.
The second section, “Alone Together,”
observes the relationships among humans who are by nature social animals. Dona
Schwartz outlines common junctures in contemporary families through the sequel
series “On the Nest: Expecting” and “On the Nest: Empty Nester,” and Yeondoo Jung’s “Evergreen Tower” series portrays
31 pictures of families in the living
room with the same-looking furniture.
The third section, “Flow,” traces
the shifts in our living conditions as a result of civilization, covering
topics of capital, oil, conveyor belts, and road vehicles. Edward Burtynsky’s Manufacturing #17, Deda Chicken
Processing Plant, Dehui City, Jilin Province portrays laborers as
mechanical parts of a mass poultry processing factory in China, while Olivo
Barbieri’s Site-Specific Mexico City 11
documents statuesque concrete towers indicative of future urban landscapes.
The fourth section, “Persuasion,”
looks into the means of persuasion developed with the civilization of
advertisement, propaganda, and marketing. Duplication,
Façade series by Han Sungpil recounts works
that focuses on the painting of a shroud covering the unpleasant appearance of
a construction site, as “The Politics of the Office” series by Andreia Alves de Oliveira studies
offices of an advertisement company, a law firm, and a brand consultancy over
time.
The fifth section, “Control,” explores
the ways in which authoritative institutions exercise their power. This section
features Proviing Ground, a
photograph of Dugway Proving Ground, a classified site in a remote region of
Utah's Great Salt Lake Desert by David Maisel, and Inside the belly of an active cooling tower in Belgium. Billions of
water droplets fall down while releasing heat to the environment by Reginald
Van de Velde.
The sixth section, “Rupture,” discusses societal collapses and conflicts. Pablo López
Luz monitors the Mexico-United States border as part of his “Border” series and Xing Danwen addresses the issues
of consumerism through disCONNEXION, B12,
depicting a massive pile of electronic waste.
The seventh section, “Escape,” captures
people in their leisure, consuming various “products” for their entertainment. Massimo
Vitali’s “beach” series shows people enjoying the beach, while An-My Lê’s Film Set (“Free State of Jones”), Battle of
Corinth, Bush, Louisiana peeks at the behind-the-scenes action of a film
set reproducing a scene from the past.
The final section, “Next,”
glances at the newly developing world of the 21st century. Robert Zhao Renhui’s
A Guide to the Flora and Fauna of the
World criticizes genetic manipulations of plants and animals, and Michael
Najjar’s f.a.s.t. looks out over a
500-meter-diameter telescope.
MMCA Director Bartomeu Marí, who has
co-produced the exhibition with William A. Ewing (former director of Musée de
l’Elysée) and Holly Roussell Perret-Gentil (expert curator of Asian photography
and contemporary art), notes that “this exhibition is a panorama of
contemporary civilization as well as a noteworthy compilation of works by
international photographers.”
More information is available on the
MMCA website (www.mmca.go.kr).
□ For general enquiries, please call
+82-2-2188-6000 (MMCA Gwacheon)
Civilization:
The Way We Live Now is a co-production of
MMCA and the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography (Executive Director
Todd Brandow).
FEP
Project Director: Todd Brandow
Curators: William A. Ewing, Holly
Roussell
Assistant Curator: Juliette Hug
Curatorial Assistants: Laura
Gomez-Schaer, Cynthia Gonzalez-Bréart
MMCA
Director: Bartomeu Mari
Chief Curator: Seungwan Kang
Curator team: Soojung Kang, Sunkang
Chang, Suhyun Bae
Design: Yongju Kim, Yuna Kim
Technical coordination: Yishik Myung,
Yeongung Bok, Taehyun Lee, Sangho Choi
Construction: Myonghee Han
