The
National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA) (Director Youn
Bummo) presents Architecture and Heritage: Unearthing Future from September 5,
2019 to April 5, 2020, bringing together Korean cultural heritage and
contemporary architecture.
This exhibition
continues the legacy of the 2012 and 2017 Deoksugung
Outdoor Project, acclaimed for presenting contemporary art in the context
of the old palace, and is the first edition after the last year’s agreement
with Deoksugung Palace Management Office
(Director Kim Dong-Young) of The Royal Palaces and Tombs Center of the Cultural
Heritage Administration (CHA) to hold regular exhibits. The exhibition
introduces five works by five architect groups active in Asia: Space Popular, CL3, Bureau Spectacular,
OBBA, and Obra Architects.
On the occasion
of the centennial of Emperor Gojong’s
passing and the March First Independence Movement, the exhibition poses a new interpretation of the Korean Empire’s
dream for future city in the beginning of modernism, from the perspectives of
contemporary architects. The architects based in and around Asia, the
region that shared the turbulent times of open ports and modernization,
conceptualized and staged their installations against Korea’s living cultural
heritage from the modern era.
Framed by the
doorway of Gwangmyeongmun Gate
inside Deoksugung Palace is Gate of Bright Lights by Space Popular (Lara Lesmes, Fredrik
Hellberg), a design company founded in Thailand and now active across the
globe. Inspired by the name of the gate, which translates to “gate of bright
lights,” the architects have installed a digital screen that emanates bright
lights to invite the audience into an ever-changing virtual space. The
architects fostered their interest in the patterns of dancheong through a workshop with a dancheong restoration expert during their seven-month preparation
for the exhibition.
In the courtyard
of Hamnyeongjeon Hall, which used to
house Emperor Gojong’s bedchamber, is Furniture for an Emperor in Transition
by CL3 (William Lim), an
architectural design studio based in Hong Kong. Lim designed six furniture
forms with combined inspirations from the imperial palanquins and furniture,
and the contours of the 20th century Western experimental furniture
such as Charlotte Perriand’s lounge chair. Sitting down on the furniture,
visitors can envision the life of the imperial family during the Korean Empire
when the East and the West came vis-à-vis.
OBBA (Lee Sojung,
Kwak Sangjoon), the winner of the 2018 Young Artist Award (architecture
category) with the Minister’s commendation from the Ministry of Culture,
Sports, and Tourism of Korea, presents Daehan Yeonhyang in front of Junghwajeon Hall, the main hall of the
palace. In the past, versatile apparatuses such as screens and sun shades were
used temporarily to recreate the front yard space for yeonhyang (court banquets). Inspired by such traditional
structures, the work interacts with ever-changing wind via dichroic films to
simultaneously scatter light and cast ornate shadows resembling a dance.
Through this work, the architects propose flexibility in thinking, value, and
space required today.
In the Garden near Seokjojeon
is Future Archeologist by Bureau Spectacular led by Jimenez Lai, a Taiwanese Canadian
architect. Lai represented Taiwan at the 14th Venice Architecture
Biennale. He imagines a vertical view of the relationship between the ground
surface and us in a few centuries, akin to the earth’s strata forming from dirt
accumulated over time. The platforms afloat in the air connected by stairs take
the visitors to a point in the future, where they can look at the year 2019
beneath their feet as a distant past.
The final
stop of the exhibition is Perpetual
Spring, a pavilion measuring 120 square meters, built by Obra Architects (Jennifer Lee and Pablo Castro), a Seoul
City Government’s Public Architect, in MMCA Seoul Museum Madang, the
central yard of the museum.
The pavilion maintains spring weather
for the duration of the exhibit through fall and winter. The work aspires to
perpetuate spring climate, the condition propitious to progressive movements
for free and just society; spring has become a poetic expression in human
history as referred to in Prague Spring and Arab Spring. The architects also
remind us of the global issue of climate change and its social impact.
A series of talks by the curator and architects are planned throughout
the exhibition period. On September 27, in celebration of MMCA’s 50th
anniversary, MMCA x Marche@, a marketplace with stalls by farmers, chefs and
craft artists, will be held in and around Perpetual
Spring.
Youn Bummo, director of MMCA,
“anticipate[s] as much success of the exhibition as of the past Deoksugung Outdoor Projects, which drew
350,000 visitors in 2012 and 900,000 in 2017. Such original architectural
intervention in the site of Korea’s living heritage by the renowned
contemporary architects will provide a new aesthetic experience to both Korean
and global audiences.”