https://ocula.com/institutions/sema-seoul-museum-of-art/exhibitions/layered-medium-we-are-in-open-circuits/
16 May–30 June 2025Seoul Museum of Art
Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA, General Director Choi Eunju) and ADMAF (Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation, The Founder H.E. Huda Alkhamis-Kanoo) present Layered Medium: We Are in Open Circuits, a major group exhibition on view at Manarat Al Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi, from May 16 to June 30, 2025.
Bringing together 48 works by 29 artists from the 1960s to the present, the exhibition traces the evolution of Korea's avant-garde and experimental practices, exploring medium as both a substance and a system of communication. From pioneers such as Nam June Paik and Park Hyunki to leading contemporary voices including Lee Bul, Haegue Yang, Ayoung Kim, and Moka Lee, the exhibition underscores the ways media shapes artistic form while reflecting broader cultural and political shifts.
Marking the most extensive presentation of Korean contemporary art in the Gulf Cooperation Council to date, the exhibition features works from SeMA's collection and other major Korean institutions—many of which are on view in the UAE for the first time. It offers rare insight into how Korean artists have responded to periods of social and technological transformation through the amalgamation of media and conceptual experimentation.
From intimate, bodily gestures to mediated representations of urban and national identity, Layered Medium: We Are in Open Circuits examines how material experimentation becomes a means of meaning-making, navigating complex intersections between the personal and the political, the local and the global, the past and the future.
Drawing on Nam June Paik's prescient 1965 statement "We Are in Open Circuits," which anticipated today's hyper-connected world, the exhibition considers how artists use media to investigate the connections between sensory experience, social conditions, and cultural systems. Presented in Abu Dhabi, these works take on new layers of resonance in a region that shares parallel experiences of rapid modernisation, global circulation, and shifting cultural identity. Here, the medium is not only a material or technique, but a channel of translation, relation, and transformation. In addition to expanding the meanings of the works, the Abu Dhabi presentation introduces Korea's artistic heritage to new audiences and extends the international reach of SeMA's collection.
Curated collaboratively by Kyung-hwan Yeo (SeMA) and Maya El Khalil (independent curator), the exhibition is the first large-scale international presentation of SeMA's collection and inaugurates a three-year institutional partnership between SeMA and ADMAF.
An accompanying publication, Layered Dialogues, will feature texts by UAE-based writers, deepening the exchange between the two art scenes and framing the exhibition within the region's cultural discourses. The exhibition design, developed by Formafantasma, approaches design as a medium in its own right, emphasising spatial storytelling, material research, and the relationship between physical and conceptual frameworks. A dynamic public programme will include panel discussions, artist talks, and film screenings, with full details to be announced soon.
Participating artists Nam June Paik, Kim Kulim, Park Hyunki, Lee Kun-Yong, Lee Kang So, Bahc Yiso, Hong Seung-Hye, Lee Bul, Chung Seoyoung, Minouk Lim, MOON Kyungwon & JEON Joonho, Byungjun Kwon, Haegue Yang, Seulgi Lee, Young In Hong, Min Oh, Sung Hwan Kim, Suki Seokyeong Kang, Ayoung Kim, Hayoun Kwon, Sojung Jun, Hyejoo Jun, Goen Choi, Woo Hannah, SunJeong Hwang, Ram Han, Gijeong Goo, Moka Lee
Curated by Kyung-hwan Yeo (Curator, SeMA), Maya El Khalil (Independent curator).
Organized by Seoul Museum of Art, Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation.
No comments:
Post a Comment