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2024. 3. 29


[¹Ì¼úÀϹÝ] Media City -Seoul
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Progressive Media City
 
 Seoul stakes its claim
 
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The sixth Media City Seoul event, which this year shed the somewhat pigeonholing term ``biennale,¡¯¡¯ opens today to offer four locations and 46 artists of some of the most innovative,
 


¡°Singing Cloud¡± by Shilpa Gupta is comprised of thousands of microphones and emits song-like sounds based on one¡¯s cognitive process during sleep. Above, a still from ¡°Primitive¡± by Apichatpong Weerasethakul ¡ª winner of the Palme d¡¯Or at this year¡¯s Cannes Film Festival ¡ª is seen. The film will play through Nov. 17 at the sixth Media City Seoul. / Courtesy of Media City Seoul
By Ines Min

September is facing no dearth of substance for art aficionados across the country. With the 8th Gwangju Biennale accelerating to speed for what looks like two months of somber, enlightening review of images and the Busan Biennale raising the bar for domestic artists, Media City Seoul is finding its own niche and reputation for the international artistic crowd uncertain of that destination ``Korea.¡¯¡¯ Namely, that it¡¯s pretty hip.

The sixth Media City Seoul event, which this year shed the somewhat pigeonholing term ``biennale,¡¯¡¯ opens today to offer four locations and 46 artists of some of the most innovative, astounding and ¡ª flat-out ¡ª fun artwork found within the city. Hosted at the Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA), the Gyeonghui Palace Annex, the Seoul Museum of History and the Simpson Memorial Hall at Ewha Girls¡¯ High School, the ambitious event will run through Nov. 17.

A still from ¡°Primitive¡± by Apichatpong Weerasethakul ¡ª winner of the Palme d¡¯Or at this year¡¯s Cannes Film Festival ¡ª is seen. The film will play through Nov. 17 at the sixth Media City Seoul. / Courtesy of Media City Seoul
Operating cohesively under the theme of ``trust,¡¯¡¯ this year brings to conversation the idea as it applies to media.

``This year¡¯s theme will foster a close examination of the relationship between the media and people living in today¡¯s global community,¡¯¡¯ said Yoo Hee-young, director of the SeMA, ``encouraging a broader interpretation of media, one that encompasses humanistic and sociological views.¡¯¡¯

SeMA

The exhibition begins unexpectedly, when visitors are least likely to be confronted with a work: the ticket-taker.``This is New¡¯¡¯ by Tino Sehgal ¡ª who is also being featured in the Gwangju Biennale ¡ª comprises of the ticket-taker surprisingly reciting a seemingly random line of text in place of a greeting. The line, taken from the day¡¯s headlines, forcibly turns the topic to current events in an uncannily witty approach.

Continuing onward, one will be faced with a series of beautifully composed videos, from Sarah Morris¡¯ work filmed at the site of the Beijing 2008 Olympics to an exhaustingly emotional short focused on a to-be kamikaze reciting a farewell to his parents, from Koizumi Meiro.

The Xijing Men _ a collaboration of three artists from China, Korea and Japan ¡ª offer a lighthearted picture of the imaginary city of Xijing, a to-be Western capital of the East to accompany Tokyo, Beijing and Nanjing, featuring a variety of ``sports¡¯¡¯ in their project documenting the Xijing Olympics.

Julika Rudelius¡¯ video follows interviews with five confident, middle-aged women of varying class, inquiring about their perceptions of beauty and plastic surgery, while Suh Do-ho¡¯s piece focuses on the unity of mankind with ``Who Am We?: Uni-Face.¡¯¡¯ The video overlays portrait upon portrait, resulting in an eerily familiar countenance that carries the nose, eyes and ears of everyone, and no one at once.

Shilpa Gupta created a massive ``cloud¡¯¡¯ of microphones, recording song-like sounds to follow the cognitive process of perceiving images while asleep. Listening to the work, visitors can sit to simultaneously view his flipboard clatter to settle upon phrases that inspire equality (``Hindus Muslims Christians¡¯¡¯).

Sticking to the distinguishing characteristics associated with the event, Media City Seoul brings impressive interactive works to the public, such as the ``Ulrike and Eamon Compliant.¡¯¡¯ Debuted at the Venice Biennale last year, the work by renowned artists group Blast Theory calls for viewers to live the life of a spy on a mission, feeding information to participants via cell phone, leading them throughout the city.

Tuan Andrew Nguyen¡¯s work is a particularly endearing installation, that features a vintage bicycle decorated with a custom-built speaker that remixes roughly 60 American hip-hop songs that use the word

``Vietnam¡¯¡¯ in their lyrics, an imitation of the contraptions that were once used to spread propaganda during the war.

Simpson, Gyeonghui, history museum

Cho Duck-hyun presents a thoroughly intimate look into the lives of others with a series of four rooms featuring the recorded voices of 100 women, in a reassessment of history (or, ``herstory¡¯¡¯) as located in a building that played a major role in advancing women¡¯s rights.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul, winner of the 2010 Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or, brings his short film ``Nabua,¡¯¡¯ a look into a northern Thai village that has been deserted of men due to governmental attempts to target Communist sympathizers.

A short by Lim Min-ouk is a haunted look into the dark aspects of humans ¡ª a thermal video camera portrays only the warmth left by people ¡ª a la isolation and solitude, concluding with a humming female¡¯s solo reminiscent of Bjork¡¯s husky (sometimes) baritone.

Media City Seoul provides an invigorating range of the humorous and the serious, marked with an awareness of the audience that keeps the showcase wholly engaging. A series of outdoor programs and sound performances will also be held throughout the two-month period, while admission to the large-scale event is free.

A quote from co-curator Nicholaus Schafhausen, director at Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam, best summarizes the ever-cool approach of Media City Seoul: ``In the field of art, `trust¡¯ is about projection. Trusting the statements of a thematic exhibition titled `Trust¡¯ is at best a lucid dream and has nothing to do with reason.¡¯¡¯

For more information, visit www.mediacityseoul.org. All works and information at the exhibition is in beautifully fluent English and Korean.

Ãâó: ÄÚ¸®¾ÆŸÀÓÁö inesmin@koreatimes.co.kr


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