SPACE July 2023 (No. 668)
It has been 42 years since the inauguration of the ‘Young Korean Artists’, and 37 years since the opening of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA) Gwacheon. Just as people age with time, systems and space get old and outdated. In this regard, what can a curator do? Chung Dahyoung (curator, MMCA) seeks to recalibrate the care for, and systems shaping, our spaces in a curatorial context through the ‘Young Korean Artists 2023: Annotating the Museum’.
Installation view of Serial Columns 1 by Kim Kyoungtae
interview Chung Dahyoung curator, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA) × Park Jiyoun
Park Jiyoun (Park): ‘Young Korean Artists 2023: Annotating the Museum’ is the first exhibition following the 40th anniversary special exhibition held in 2021. Unlike previous exhibitions, this time it attempted in an expansion to other genres such as architecture and design. What is the reason for this attempt?
Chung Dahyoung (Chung): ‘Young Korean Artists’ started as a survey exhibition of work by young artists, and is by far the oldest regular exhibition held by the MMCA. ‘Artist of the Year’, and the ‘MMCA Hyundai Motor Series’ are also held regularly, however these are jointly organised by sponsors. Carrying the name of the oldest regular exhibition in the history of the museum, it is now over 40 years old. Which is why there is a need for a revitalisation of its approach. In the early years of the ‘Young Korean Artists’, the MMCA Gwacheon was about the almost only modern art museum facility in Korea and there were almost none that would hold exhibitions to introduce new artists. However, with time, different art museums and alternative spaces, such as the Leeum Museum of Art with exhibitions like ‘Art Spectrum’ introducing new artists, popped up after the 2000’s. Situations within the art community changed rapidly with the start of the 2010’s, and the museum itself was internally concerned about whether it could continue running the ‘Young Korean Artists’. It was then that we sensed the inadequacy of an approach that only introduced young artists. Although it was initially in the form of a biennale and was held every two years, there was a period of time where the exhibition was held irregularly with deepening concerns over the exhibition systems. As a result, the strand was set in the direction of continuing the identity of ‘Young Korean Artists’, which is the foundation for the internal curator and artist to grow together. In this regard, the special exhibition for the 40th anniversary was held. Young artists were introduced and a special archive exhibition for the 40th anniversary was presented in the central hall. Thanks to the 40th anniversary exhibition summarising the history and legacy of the ‘Young Korean Artists’, there were greater accommodations for reorganisations of its policies. In fact, experiments with genre have been attempted before. There have been exhibitions consisting of only craft artists and Korean traditional painting artists. ‘Young Korean Artists 2023: Annotating the Museum’ broadens its genre definitions of architecture and design, and reflected my expertise as an architectural curator, yet this was due to the fact these were the only genres that were excluded from previous ‘Young Korean Artists’ exhibitions. By calling on neglected genres, we expected to shed fresh light on the future of ʻYoung Korean Artistsʼ.
Park: The main theme of the exhibition is ‘Annotating “Exhibitions”ʼ, which requires artists to interpret the spaces of art museums and more specifically those of MMCA Gwacheon. What is the focus of this exhibition, particularly when it comes to the architectural and spatial characteristics of art museums and the MMCA Gwacheon?
Chung: We did not request interpretations of art museums and the MMCA Gwacheon from the artists. Instead, we asked them to start from the place of the exhibition. This is a request for a different perspective on the space of the museum. I believe that this unique perspective is inherent within each work. Of course, prior to this, there are my own interpretations of the spatial characteristics of the MMCA Gwacheon as a curator. First is the circulation. Nam June Paik’s More and More at the centre of the lamp core is a very important work, but it also blocks the flow of one’s eyeline inside the museum. The audience mainly passes through the rectangular exhibition hall on the right after entering from the entrance, but in fact, there is a space known as a circular circulation that leads to the rooftop garden on the left side of the museum building. Second is a plan for greater depth. Normally Korean modern architecture has a lot of narrow overlapping spaces with repeated wall structures, but the MMCA Gwacheon has a deep and full space like a western-style building, and many pillars to support the space. These two spatial characteristics were conveyed to the artists.
Exhibition view of ‘Intro’ at the entrance
Exhibition view of ‘Outro’ at the exit
Exhibition view of ‘Young Korean Artists 2023: Annotating the Museum’
Floor plan of exhibition. It was intended to reveal the pillars grid system by organically arranging the works without temporary walls.
Park: The exhibition is divided into three sections: the space, the exhibition, and experience. ‘Annotating “Space”ʼ had many works that focused on the pillars, such as the Serial Columns series, Drag Museum, Expansion of the pillar (Expansion, Metamorphosis, Deconstruction).
Chung: Photographer Kim Kyoungtae, Lee Dami (principal, FLORA AND FAUNA), Kim Hyunjong (principal, ATELIER KHJ) are artists who have long been exploring the use and presence of pillars. This was an instance when a curator’s information and an artists’ existing research areas align. Columns are the physical structures bearing the museum space. This point is also in line with the exhibition concept of ‘annotating the museum’.
Park: ‘Annotating “Exhibitions”’ is a section that deals with posters, brochures, captions, floor plans, and so on, which were considered supplementary material in exhibitions. What are your expectations in shedding light on these elements as part of this exhibition?
Chung: Floor plans, posters and brochures are the byproducts of the collaboration between architects/designers and the art museum. However, these products of certain functions look different when placed on a pedestal in an exhibition hall. This was an attempt to give these informative objects status as works of art and to view them from an alien perspective. Reading the Museum, including Exhibition Period, Viewing Hours, Directions by graphic designer O Hezin, reconstructs the information customarily provided in an exhibition hall in a new format. Personally, these works provided a diverse range of exploration into how one might explain an exhibition. Directions are reformatted in the format of audio and graphic videos that show the journey to the museum. We transformed items with an overt function to functionless items for display, yet it as enlightening to me that we could bring these back to their functional properties. Wouldn’t it be possible to actively induce an experience related to the museum before arriving at the exhibition hall by putting brochure information not only in text but also in video and sound on a website or mobile device?
Park: From what perspectives does ‘Annotating “Experiences”’ explore the experiences within the museum?
Chung: We payed attention to relationships in detail. Movie director Paik Jongkwan’s Blende looks at the relationship between the art museum space and the footsteps of the visitors, Ritual Machine by Park Heechan (principal, Studio Heech) focus on the path of the museum and the visitors following the path, and media artist Chu Mirim’s Lamp and Ramp, Pathfinder, Fruit and Stream deal with the relations between overlapping views when observing a space and its objects. Viewing a space from afar, and looking at it in segments. It is not just simply experiencing a place at one’s will, but these works awaken the sensory responses that arise from the interactions between a person and a place.
Installation view of Metamorphosis by Kim Hyunjong
A part of Drag Museum by Lee Dami
Installation view of Directions by O Hezin
Park: There are poems at the entrance, and videos of interview with the artists at the exit. When organising the exhibition sequence, what kind of experiences did you hope to create for the visitors?
Chung: Since this exhibition was organised around a series of commissions, it focused on the role of supporting artists. Nevertheless, I could not get rid of the will and desire as the curator of the exhibition. I tried to demonstrate this within the exhibition sequence. To begin with, I wanted to reveal the grid system of the columns within the exhibition hall, which is the strongest architectural characteristic in the exhibition hall. Therefore, there were no temporary walls erected for this exhibition. The columns work as a kind of a module, and the works of the artists are organically placed between the columns. In addition, the question of how to open and close exhibition doors is one that I have deliberated over for a long time. Since the artistʼs works are visually strong, I needed something that would not be in conflict with the works. The ‘Intro’ at the entrance of the exhibition hall, I wanted to sensibly tell the story of the art museum which shapes the ‘Young Korean Artists’. The three conditions considered were: to use a different medium comparable to prior artworks, that the display method is not compulsory, and that it is elegant. Texts by poets were chosen as a result, which correspond to the threedimensional artworks in the exhibition. The ‘Outro’ at the exit of the exhibition hall, we wanted to remind viewers of the previous thematic frameworks behind the ‘Young Korean Artists’. As ‘Young Korean Artists’ is a platform on which to introduce new artists who are active in the contemporary art world, we included interview videos and views of past projects that scrutinize and convey who they are and what their interests are, and of what medium they tend to work in.
Park: Beyond an exhibition itself, planning before and after the exhibition is also the role of a curator. The early floor plan of architect Kim Tae-soo, the night museum tour, and so on, were all mentioned in the interviews of the artists. We are curious if there was a pre-planned programme and what the planning aims were?
Chung: About half of the artists are architects and designers who have less museum experience than fine art artists. In addition, I have often seen extreme cases in which architects erase the context of their work and try to turn themselves into artists when exhibiting commissioned works, or only play the role of problem solvers. In this exhibition, I hoped to show works that were related to the subject while also remaining connected to their existing work. For this, it was important to provide a basis for the artist to think about the subject. The night museum tour acted upon of this context. Of note is the fact that the building can be viewed at night. When all the lights are on, the space appears complicated due to its intertwined textures and signage, but at night, you can focus on a purer sense of the sequence and frame of the space by looking at it with the light of your cell phone. It is like looking at the inside of an art museum as if you were looking at an X-ray. In addition, we created a window that would encourage conversations between curators and artists, and between the artists. In fact, architects have a lot of exhibition experience, but not much experience collaborating with curators. In most architectural exhibitions, the architect is the planner, the designer, and the artist. This has its advantages, yet the reason why exhibitions are made in collaboration with a whole host of different people is that they objectify the artworks and create a critical distance between them. Therefore, we communicated with each other by setting up official venues and events such as night tours and lectures. Throughout this process, I requested that the works to be completed should be thought of as an extension of their existing practice. I am quite content to see that as a result, their new work reminds us of their attitudes across their previous practices.
Park: An anthology publication is planned to follow the exhibition. Contributors other than participating artists, such as Choon Choi (professor, Seoul National Universtiy), Choi Sungmin (co-principal, sulki and min), and independent curator Sim Somi, were also invited and published separate from the exhibition catalogue. What is the aim of the anthology?
Chung: While the exhibition focuses on the artists’ new works under the framework of ‘Young Korean Artists’, the anthology expands the theme of ‘annotating the museum’ a little further. The anthology covers discussions such as the value of the museum space, caring for museums, and the role of architecture and design in museum and archival contexts.
Park: The MMCA Gwacheon has been working with architects on the ‘MMCA Gwacheon Project’ to plant an identity at its bus stops and rooftops, paying attention to outdoor spaces that are in contact with nature and at a remove from the city centre. This exhibition also considers the space of MMCA Gwacheon along the theme of an art museum. What is the reason for this continuous contextualisation of the MMCA Gwacheon?
Chung: MMCA Gwacheon needed regeneration as it naturally aged over time. In a functional aspect, repairs were in need, and the spatial properties of the old art museum continued to collide with the mediums of contemporary art. The restoration of the MMCA Gwacheon is connected to the issue of how best to regenerate the space of an art museum as part of a curatorial practice. In other words, it addresses the problem of how a curator should seek to care for an old museum. Personally, I use the term acupuncture strategically, in the sense of a method of crossing vectors one by one. To the best of our ability, we discover hidden meanings in space and render them accessible in various ways through exhibitions, programmes, and collaborations with artists within a curatorial context. We take care of the museum by revisiting existing spaces, strategically altering them, and even making them into exhibition objects themselves.
A part of Ritual Machine by Park Heechan
Installation view of Blende by Paik Jongkwan
You can see more information on the SPACE No. 668 (July 2023).
