Indice dei contenuti per February 2019 in Space

‘The Expanded Manual’, which is on show from Dec. 11, 2018 to Feb. 17, 2019 in Nam-Seoul Museum of Art is an exhibition that explores how art works today in relation to its use of re-referencing and reproducing of existing images. The exhibition was designed to explore the possibility of expansion by attending to the museum’s collection of works that have a certain indeterminacy and openness. The artists behind the selected works, Kang Suki Seokyeong, Kim Minae, Lee Eunu and Chung Soyoung, reveal the potential for an expansion of these works by adding installations or expanding the concepts that informed the existing works. First of all, Chung Soyoung’s Material I – VIII is a work that pushes the present work by installing a new structure. The artist, who has long…

The objects of daily life have long occupied the spaces of the art gallery and museum. A car stopper from a public parking lot, a soiled bus tire, an iron barrel from a construction site, a yoga mat and gym ball, a beverage box, and seat cushions are among the many objects that have been scattered across this exhibition floor. Although these objects do not share common size, colour, or characteristics, all of them are ‘pseudo chairs’. The ‘Pseudo Chair’ exhibition currently on show at the Seoul National University Museum of Art (MoA) begins with a fundamental question regarding chairs. The most common image of a chair would be a back-rest, seat, and four legs. As a chair is built to comfortably and safely bolster a person’s body weight, the…

The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art at Cheongju, or MMCA Cheongju has now opened. Following those located in Gwacheon, Deoksugung, and Seoul, this fourth branch of the museum is a renovated old tobacco processing plant, receiving attention for its singular programs such as an open storage facility and a visible conservation science room. The opening of this branch is clearly notable in that it not only strengthens the public facing ambitions of art museums but also serves a case in which a national cultural facility – which is usually built in the metropolitan area – is expanded to a non-capital region. However, if one was to look back on the project’s progress since 2012 and the results now before us, one cannot but feel dismayed. In this special…

In an area marked ‘wild grass sculpture garden’ on the floor plans, only gravel and sand can be found. A construction curtain blocked the view, and labourers wearing safety helmets rushed to and from the site in front of the museum. The entrance was filled with the dust produced by concrete mixers and trucks. Factory Block-2, one of the main buildings of the tobacco processing plant has now been transformed into the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) Cheongju, yet, Factory Block-1, which lies just adjacent, is still bustling with the construction of the urban regeneration project. At the intersection between the two factory blocks, a large banner had been hung, signaling the official opening of the museum the next day. That day, MMCA Cheongju hosted a press…

On Jan. 13 , the Songeun Art and Cultural Foundation announced the results of the 18th Songseun Art Award. The grand prize went to Kim Joon (sound), and the runner-ups were Park Kyung Ryul (painting, installation), Lee Uesung (installation), and Chun Eun (photography). Kim Joon was born in 1976. After studying mass communication at Yonsei University, he studied photography and media at Bielefeld University of Applied Science and received his masters degree in art and media from Berlin University of Arts. He is often described as a ‘sound-scape’ artist who works by recording sounds, an unfamiliar art genre that is based on environmental research. For this competition, he showcased Ecosystem: Signals of Cities and Nature capturing sounds taken from nature from all over the world, along with State of Vacuum,…

The fragrance of coffee wafts in the air when the door opens. People are chatting over a cup of coffee. This is not a scene taken from a café but of ‘Coffee Society’, an exhibition currently on show at the Culture Station Seoul 284. This is not the first time that the aroma o f co f fee has filled Seoul Sta tion. When Culture Station Seoul 284 was ‘Gyeongseong Station’, the tea room of the first and second-class waiting room on the first floor and ‘Gril’ on the second floor, the first western style restaurant in the Gyeongseong period, coffee culture was presented to the public. Nowadays, we are witnessing the golden age of coffee, and we can enjoy coffee anytime and anywhere without visiting Seoul Station. This show,…

On Jan. 8, a public hearing was held at the Architecture Center of Architectural Institute of Korea to collect opinions on how to improve the architect qualification system. This event was arranged by the Korea Institute of Registered Architects ( KIRA) and Korea Architectural Accrediting Board (KAAB) following the rising criticism of the presently unreasonable architect qualification system, despite the significant recent modifications to architectural education, the certification system, and the practical training system made in 2012. In April 2018, a national petition was raised to call for an increase in the architect license. The hearing began with the presentation of research conducted since June 1 in 2018 on the operation of the architect qualification system, followed by a Q & A session with audience. The research team gave presentations…

Epilogue: After the ‘Ring Ring Belt’ The exhibition 2018 Public Arts Project: Ring Ring Belt covered the phenomenon of spatial reorganisation in the capital region. I acted as its curator upon becoming the artistic director of the ‘2018 Public Arts Project’, hosted by the GyeongGi Cultural Foundation. The Public Arts Project is a public art project promoted since 2015 as an annual tour of the Gyeonggi Province area. This year, it consisted of seminars held in four cities across the Gyeonggi Province (Seongnam, Yeoju, Bucheon, and Paju), regional studies, and site visits. The result of the project was a collaborative work realised in Seoul by 23 artist teams, delivering their estimation of social phenomena and contemporary art practice regarding urban culture in the local cultural milieu. ▼1 As we have…

In ancient Egypt of 3rd century BC, a facility was built which functioned as a library, a research institute, and a place for meditation, known as the ‘Museion’. ▼1 Museion, which is described as the first museum, has since then evolved into a Studiolo or a Cabinet of Curiosities, which was a place in which various objets were collected and assembled for study by the elite, before it finally evolving into the modern museum of today. This Cabinet of Curiosities where artworks and objects that were favoured by the royalty and aristocracy were collected together for view and study and protected from damage, was first opened for public access after the French Revolution in 1793 at the Louvre Museum. The motive behind the Louvre Museum’s establishment, to share the ideals…

Architect Furuya Nobuaki + Lee Donghoon + NASCA Design team Yagi Sachiko, Kikkawa Takuya Location Aizumi, Tokushima prefecture, Japan Programme clinic, shop Site area 1,800.2m2 Building area 715.8m2 Gross floor area 748.2m2 Building scope 1F Height 4.1m Parking 21 Building to land ratio 39.76% Floor area ratio 41.56% Structure steel Exterior finishing weak solvent type polyurethane resin top coat of aluminum paint on ALC and RC, water repellent painting on cedar laminated wood Interior finishing water repellent painting on laminated veneer lumber, painting, ceramic tile, flooring, linoleum Structural engineer yAt structural design office Construction: AZUMA CONSTRUCTION Mechanical and electrical engineer KANKYO ENGINEERING INC. Design period Nov. 2016 – Nov. 2017 Construction period Jan. – Sep. 2018 Client Mizutani HD Corp.…

The client, who regards Hwacheon in Gangwon Province as his second hometown, commissioned a small house in which he could spend the rest of his life. The site, where the Nam River in Hwacheon passes so close it feels as if it could be caught by hand, is surrounded by a hill at the southwest. In the northeast, the site stands on a bridging point between the Nam River and Seong Mountain in Hwacheon County, where they are visually connected. The client, who served for many years as a civil servant in Gangwon Province, had experience of commissioning buildings and projects, such as the Park Soo Keun Museum. However, he never intruded upon the design process, except to supply a programme brief and the concluding debrief. The brief for this…

In 1969, Michael Heizer dug trenches in the Nevada desert. The title of the project is Double Negative and it has been praised as monumental act in land art, expanding the reach of art beyond the art gallery. How can one fully appreciate the vastness of the trenches that extend from one end of the desert to other? Would it be possible to comprehend from one side? Should one admire the pictures taken of the earthwork? Where does art truly stand? The exhibition ‘Double Negative: From White Cube to Netflix’ (DNWN), addresses today’s sense of ‘placeness’ in art. The concepts of art production, consumption, or of sharing that take place on online platforms are revisited in the white cube. Works of artists who use various mediums, including video, sculpture, and…

‘The 29th East Asia Architecture City History Colloquium’ was held at Hanyang University on Jan. 11. As an academic conference hosted by the Far East Asia Architecture History Laboratory (FAHL) of Hanyang University’s architecture department, the event invites architecture and urban scholars from across East Asia to review and analyse cultural remains, relics, philosophies, and institutions. This time the key topic was the ‘Preservation of Cultural Heritage and Digital Technology’, and became a venue for introducing Taiwan’s cultural heritage management system. Presentations were given by two presenters who work on establishing governmental policy and the use of digital technology. First, Shy Gwolong (director-general, Taiwan’s Bureau of Cultural Heritage) presented on ‘The Status of Taiwan’s Cultural Heritage Preservation Policy’. He talked about ‘Cultural Taiwan’ which is a key objective behind the…

The 4th and 5th units of the Seoul Power Station, commonly known as the Danginri Power Station, will be transformed into a cultural complex connected through three passageways, as a result of the Danginri Comprehensive Cultural Space Design Competition. The hosts of the competition, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Korea Midland Power Co., Ltd. selected ‘Danginri Podium and Promenade’ by Mass Studies (Park Kisu, Cho Minsuk, Kang Junkoo) from 18 proposals. The focus of the competition was to preserve modern industrial heritage while also celebrating local culture and the arts eco-system (such as the neighbouring Sangam DMC, Mullae arts creative village), as the well as the natural assets of the region, such as the Hangang Park and Seonyudo Park, and historical resources such as the Mangwon-jeong and…

Lee Sungje (Lee): Please tell us the physical conditions of the Lasipalatsi and the nearby square, and their original uses before the project. JKMM Architects (JKMM): Lasipalatsi is a Functionalist building dating from 1936 and designed by three young Finnish architects, Viljo Revell, Heino Riihimäki and Niilo Kokko. Interestingly, Lasipalatsi was intended as a temporary building. It was originally conceived as a mixed-use, multipurpose pavilion-type facility with a restaurant, shops and a cinema for the 1940 Olympic Games in Helsinki (postponed to 1952). Lasipalatsi was nonetheless built in an efficient and lasting way and, both technically and architecturally, it is very much a building ahead of its time. Its readily visible neon lights and large windows, with their impressive sun blinds, also attest to this. Moreover, the Lasipalatsi Square played…

The auspicious beginning: It began with a promising cooperative work between the central government and the local governments. It was a point in time when the safe preservation of value, recovery process, and the systematic management of exhibitions and research were at their most crucial. An integrative system that can organise artworks that are ineffectively purchased and managed by each government department and owned by individuals was in urgent need. The Cheongju tobacco processing plant used to be the biggest tobacco producing factory in the country. A new purpose behind rebuilding a cultural arts space for urban entertainment was established by implicating memories and history of the city. A contract was signed between the art museum and Cheongju city, and the plans for the first regional branch of National Museum…

The Kohno INR Clinic is located along the main road leading to the Aizumi interchange on Tokushima Expressway. The clinic encompasses internal medicine, neurosurgery, orthopedics, rehabilitation ▼1 and a pharmacy. A clinic is usually separate from the outpatient pharmacy and operated by different manager according to the regulations of the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act. However, considering the convenience of patients, they have been here combined in one building. With separate entrances the clinic and the pharmacy are connected through the space under the eaves for convenient. The director of the clinic has a responsibility to accurately diagnose the patient’s symptoms irrespective of the uncertainties presented by illness and to provide the optimal medication and rehabilitation therapies. For this reason, I thought that each area, for examination, rehabilitation, and the pharmacy, should…

A dense forest has formed in the white cube of an exhibition space. Kim Yujung’s most recent work Plant Kingdom displays furniture, including a bed, table, and sofa, covered in Tillandsia. In a piece that portrays plants that once cared for by people now engulfing human territory, viewers are presented with an unfamiliar force. Located next to a large-scale installation piece, which resembles a prehistoric forest, are works that use various media, including frescoes, drawing, and sound. The artist, who has worked on fresco pieces for many years, used various media and narratives along with traditional techniques to create his impressions of the natural world. There are also artworks that the artist created after being inspired by her time in Uzbekistan. The artist showcases work that reorganises an unfamiliar forest…