MMCA Hyundai Motor Series
A long term project to support Korean art
- Hyundai Motor Series 2017 artist announced!
The home of Korean modern and contemporary art, MMCA
If you want to learn about the past and present of Korean contemporary art, visit the MMCA. Since its opening in 1969, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art(MMCA) has been an incubator of Korean modern and contemporary art.
The Seoul branch opened in 2013 and the Cheongju branch is due to open in 2019. The museum is in the phase of expanding its branches from the Gwacheon branch, the Deoksugung branch, the Seoul branch, to the Cheongju branch. While operating all of the branches organically, MMCA is making efforts to express the uniqueness of each branch.
Viewers can explore the significant traces made by various artists of Korean modern and contemporary art. Their artistic spirits and artworks will certainly make our lives more diverse and exciting. Furthermore, the accumulated records of such exhibitions are expected to be the base of researches for establishing and developing the history of Korean art. But, a visit doesn't have to be just for art. You can also enjoy the great lab, the MMCA Film and Video, where film programs are held, at the MMCA.
Visit the MMCA website to explore exhibitions on view
GO >MMCA Hyundai Motor Series
The best exhibition platform for Korean artists
MMCA Hyundai Motor Series is a long term project between MMCA and Hyundai Motor to foster Korean art. By understanding the ecosystem of supporting art in Korea, we saw that Korean artists did not have access to an international platform on which they could display their work in Korea.
Through the MMCA Hyundai Motor Series, Korean artists have access to display platforms that are without parallel in quality and which offer the chance to show works to the true potential. Supporting Korean artists who explore and go beyond boundaries is one of the priorities at Hyundai Motor.
<Hyundai Motor Series 2017: IM Heung-soon>
The artist who will experiment his new video language for the fourth exhibition of the MMCA Hyundai Motor Series is IM Heung-soon. Born in Seoul in 1969, the artist majored in painting but what made his name in the international art scene was his film. He received the Silver Lion at the ‘56th Venice Biennale’ for <Factory Complex>, which deals with women workers and labor problems, by demonstrating an art form where expressions of art and film are combined. <Factory Complex> starts from a question: where did all the female workers at the Guro Industrial Complex go? IM Heung-soon, having focused on the names of those sacrificed and oppressed under the pretense of economic success, will present a new subject, “THINGS THAT DO US PART”. In this project, the artist looks back on the lives of five elderly women going through “belief”, “betrayal”, “fear”, and “ghost” of the Korean modern society as keywords. The exhibition will be presented in a form of a filming set and viewers will be offered an opportunity to go beyond and participate.
IM Heung-soon has presented his works in museums all across the world, including the Pompidou Centre in Paris, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), and the Sharjah Art Foundation Art Spaces. <THINGS THAT DO US PART> will be his first large-scale solo exhibition in Korea after winning the Silver Lion in 2015; what would be some of the questions he would be raising to individuals and the society?
Photo by GAHYUNBAIK@edgerank
<Hyundai Motor Series 2016: KIMSOOJA – Archive of Mind>
MMCA Hyundai Motor Series 2016 presented Kimsooja, a conceptual artist who takes an active part in the international art scene. Born in Daegu, Korea in 1957, she has formed contemporary empathy throughout America, France, and other countries with Korean traditional sewing utensils as subject matters, such as needles, thread, cloth, or bottari, a bed sheet used for packing personal belongings, and the act of sewing. Kim blurs the boundary between esthetics and transcendental experiences by making and installing videos displaying repetitive acts, meditative practices, chained shapes, etc. An element essential in the works of Kim is bottari, which is used as a philosophical metaphor by the artist to connect the structure and the concept. Having presented various personae through many series, she created a work regarding international issues on lives of those who are deported from their homes to outside the borders, chased and running, due to diaspora or slave trades. Bottari is the medium that represents inevitable lives of them who have to wander around with their baggage on their shoulders.
Kimsooja has participated in exhibitions held in the most popular art museums including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art(LACMA), the Guggenheim Museum, and the Hirshhorn Museum. She has also been invited to various international events such as the Yokohama Triennale and Whitney Biennial, also she was the artist of the Korean pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale. The <Hyundai Motor Series 2016: KIMSOOJA – Archive of Mind> was on view at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul from July 27th, 2016 to February 5th, 2017.
MMCA Hyundai Motor Series 2016: KIMSOOJA – Archive of Mind
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<Hyundai Motor Series 2015: AHN KYUCHUL - Invisible Land of Love>
The second exhibition of the MMCA Hyundai Motor Series presented Ahn Kyuchul (b. 1955), an artist best known for his architectural constructions of conceptual works that embody philosophical and aesthetic introspections.
Three works - <64 Rooms>, <1,000 Scribes> and <Wall of Memories> - were the core pieces of the exhibition, which actively engaged and communicated with the audience through collaboration. Over the course of the show, the works steadily transformed with the viewers. This organic development of sensory and immaterial experiences, combined with the visual traits of the work, revealed awareness on typically invisible relationships. Viewers were unable to simply appreciate the work passively, but had to actively establish an encounter with each. In doing so, they became forces that completed each piece, moving from the spectator to the contributor. <Hyundai Motor Series 2015: Ahn Kyuchul - Invisible Land of Love> was on view from September 15th, 2015, to May 22th, 2016, at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul Exhibition Hall 5.
MMCA Hyundai Motor Series 2015: AHN KYUCHUL - Invisible Land of Love
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<Hyundai Motor Series 2014: LEE BUL>
Lee Bul (b. 1964) was the first artist to be introduced through the Hyundai Motor Series. Since the start of her career, Lee has broken conventions of beauty and destruction using provocative performances, installations and sculptures. The “Cyborg” series, begun in the late 1990s, struck a chord both within the Korean art world and the international scene. Since the 2000s, she has presented works related to individual memories and experience. <Civitas Solis II> and <Aubade III>, two large-scale installations commissioned for the Hyundai Motor Series, are expansions of her “Mon grand récit” series, which provided a new experience of space and time exploration.
MMCA Hyundai Motor Series 2014: LEE BUL
GO >Art Shuttle Bus
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Experience all MMCA branches
The art shuttle bus provides transportation between MMCA Seoul, Deoksugung and Gwacheon branches to all visitors. If you want to spend a whole day at the MMCA, why not experience the MMCA Hyundai Motor Series and then move on to exhibitions in the other MMCA branches. The shuttle service is provided throughout the day.
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A moving guide, the Art Shuttle Bus
MMCA and Hyundai Motor would like to curate your museum experience including your time on the art shuttle bus. The shuttle service provided through the partnership between MMCA and Hyundai show short video clips that introduce the exhibitions on view. We would like to make sure that your museum experience continues even when you are on the move.
