MOCA goes MMCA - Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art

Today, the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea (MOCA) unveiled its new Museum Identity as the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA).

 

If you don't know the old logo, it's in a rather classic, institutional gold, and in capital letters. A litle bit like the chaebol logos from the 80s-90s:

 

 

The new and improved MMCA still looks familiar, and not just because you can almost read "MOMA" if you don't pay much attention. But the color version seems definitely lighter and more consistent than the black and white version, where the logo comes straight from the 70s (it would probably give a different impression if the white logo were, for instance, on a more simple black geometric figure):

 

Anyway... the MOCA had already rebranded its three branches:

• MMCA Gwacheon: the main building (near Seoul Grand Park) was inaugurated in 1986, but the institution itself was established in 1969 in Gyeongbokgung, and moved a first time to Deoksugung, in 1973.
• MMCA Deoksugung: the MOCA returned to Seokjojeon, where the focus is on modern art (museum collections, international exhibitions like the recent "Memory of landscape I have never seen", featuring collections from the National Gallery in Prague). Just hectometers away from SeMA Seosomun, via Jeong-dong-gil.
• MMCA Seoul: the new Sogyeok-dong branch will be inaugurated in November this year, and the MMCA regularly posts pictures of the new structures. Many of the fences have already been removed, so everybody can see the former Defense Security Command and Military Hospital emerge in new clothes and surroundings. I'm glad they dumped the "UUL National Art Museum" brand, which sounded like "melencholy" in Korean. About this saga, see former posts, particularly "ASYAAF 2009" (July 2009), "Shinhotan, Beginning of a new Era - a big MOCA cup for Seoul" (October 2009), "MOCA @ Defense Security Command, continued" (February 2010), "SeMA to block blockbusters" (February 2012).

MOCA Seoul in Sogyeok-dong, facing Gyeongbokgung

I can't wait to visit the new museum and its collections this November. Two other exhibitions are planned for the inauguration: "The Birth of a Museum: MMCA, Seoul Archive Project", and a "On-site Production and Installation Project" featuring SEO Do-ho, CHOE U-ram, and Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries.

Speaking of Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries and text designs... I wonder if MMCA will dare display in the former Defense Security Command this work called "Cunnilingus in North Korea" (watch the whole video: yhchang.com/CUNNILINGUS_IN_NORTH_KOREA.html)

THAT would be quite a shift from the 70s for this building!

Seoul Village 2013
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Culture Station Seoul 284

After two years of renovation, the Old Seoul Station has just been reinaugurated as "Culture Station Seoul 284" (문화역서울 284), a name that echoes the status of this 111 year-old building (Korean Historic Site No. 284), as well as its new purpose.

Note that this red brick landmark already hosted ASYAAF 2008, and that the following year, the old Defense Security Command welcomed the memorable 2009 edition before experiencing itself a similar metamorphosis*.

The Former Seoul Station Building's metamorphosis is limited (the outer shell and the first two floors have been preserved) and progressive : a first exhibition starts today and will last until February 11, 2012, the official opening. In March 2012, all facilities will be fully functional.

So the countdown has started, and "Countdown" is precisely the name of the inaugural exhibition, where 20 Korean artists present their works or perform live.

Also starting today at the new venue : YIPPA 2011. Yonhap International Press Photo Awards 2011 are on display in 9 cities including NYC and Seoul. This year's thema, "Share the Moment, Share the Future", was a tribute to the UN Millennium Development Goals, and the Grand Prize went to AP's Emilio Morenatti for 'Cholera victims' :



Even if Cultural Station Seoul 284 (an echo to Paris 104 ?) seems less ambitious than the future MOCA, it fills a cultural void at a major gateway and shall welcome many visitors, including people in transit in this multimodal transportation hub.

What a decade for Seoul ! After the 2004-2005 wave (Leeum, Seoul Museum of History, new National Museum of Korea...), another batch of cultural venues is on its way : beyond this "284" and Seoul MOCA, let's not forget the future "National Museum of Contemporary History"**.

Culture Station Seoul 284" / 문화역서울 284 :
112 Bongnae-dong 2-ga, Jung-gu, Seoul, Korea
Dongja-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul
1 Tongil-ro, Jung-gu, Seoul 100-162***
seoulstation.org
YIPPA 2011 : yippa.net

Seoul Village 2011
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* a future key cultural asset, see "http://seoulvillage.blogspot.com/2010/02/moca-defense-security-command-continued.html"
** construction started soon after our focus (see "A National Museum of Korean Contemporary History ???").
*** They write "1 Dongil-ro" but the actual spelling is 1 Tongil-ro. Eastern Seoul's main axis (it follows subway line 3), Tongil-ro continues beyond Gupabal and Seoul city limits, but the axis used to be called Uiju-ro between Seoul Station and Hongeun Sageori. Yet another change for this Old Seoul Station Museum : the station's official address used to be 112 Bongnae-dong 2-ga, Jung-gu, but some people mentioned Dongja-dong in Yongsan-gu.

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20110907 UPDATE - now all documentations from this new cultural venue agree on the label "Culture Station Seoul 284" (good bye weird "cultural" then)

ASYAAF 2010

After Seoul Station ("When we first met") and the old Defense Security Command ("We meet the future"), the Asian Students and Young Artists Art Festival (titled "Open your eyes, look up the blue sky") will invade Sungshin Women's University.

Does SWU have a plan to turn into a museum ? As we saw earlier :
- Seoul Station, still under renovation, will host a major exhibition space. BTW: Seoul city is looking for pictures of meetings between Korean presidents and Seoul citizens, which used to take place there.
- the Defense Security Command will become the Seoul branch of the National Museum of Contemporary Art / MOCA (see "MOCA - Defense Security Command, continued"). BTW : we'll know within weeks the winner among the five finalist projects.

As usual (see ASYAAF 2009), ASYAAF will display works from 777 young talents from Korea and other Asian countries, with a break in the middle of the exhibition to replace all items with a new set. And as usual, I strongly advise art lovers to come twice : there's always some good surprise, sometimes where you least expect it, in the darkest corner of the building (see UPDATE BELOW).

Two innovations this year : Korean artists abroad are also participating (ie students from les Beaux Arts in Paris), and curators have mercifully decided to ban the kind of embarrassments that plagued previous editions (typically : "photoshop paintings" of realistic sirupy candies which have more to do with advertising than art).

ASYAAF 2010
20100728-20100823
Part 1 : July 28 - August 8
Part 2 : August 11 - 23
Sungshin Women's University (College of Fine Arts), 249-1 Dongsan-dong 3-ga, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul, ROK 136-742
Subway Line 4, Sungshin Women's University Station Exit 1
Tel : +82.2.724.6361 to 6367


Seoul Village 2010

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IMPORTANT UPDATE 20100728

I DO NOT recommand the visit this year. To my utmost dismay, this edition of the ASYAAF is an embarrassment : the quality is overwhelmingly low and the few familiar faces didn't save the day. The only artistic note was the ballet of workers painting the walls for the inauguration, hanging from their ropes against Seongbuk-gu skyline.

MOCA @ Defense Security Command, continued

As we saw earlier, the National Museum of Contemporary Art will open a new branch in Sogyeok-dong. And I was pleased to read today* that the DSC would not be obliterated : all five finalists to the architectural contest will respect an old building which proved its relevance for contemporary art (see ASYAAF 2009 last summer or the Shinhotan exhibition last autumn).

It's hard to judge by the pictures published in the JoongAng Daily, but each project seem to have its way of transforming the Defense Security Command complex (ie under one vast but thin slab for Lee Pil-hoon, scattered in colorful bars for Shin Chun-gyu...**), and all are gaining new volumes under the ground. Finalists will improve their submissions until the final decision in May and the result shouldn't be too intimidating, nor as massive as the National Museum in Yongsan. Mercifully, the jury rejected Frank Gehry - style soulless extravaganzzas (this guy basically runs a nice computer program to compensate the lack of vision of his clients), and that leaves room for sustainable creativity.

This project is significant from a cultural as well as an urban point of view : it will redefine the dialog between the Gyeongbokgung and the other side of Samcheongdong-gil, already a major art gallery cluster, but must also benefit the whole area around Anguk Station : Samcheong-dong restaurants to the North, Gahoe-dong alleys to the West, Insadong to the South... Art lovers will spend whole days zapping from early Joseon to late Lee Myung-bak periods by foot or on a bicycle.

Seoul Village 2010

* "New museum accentuates cultural hot spot" (JoongAng Daily 20100209)
** the other finalists : Jeong Ill-kyo, Kim Dong-hoon, Mihn Hyun-jun.

Shinhotan, Beginning of a new Era - a big MOCA cup for Seoul

A "Shinhotan" is a flare to show the way, what we Frogs call "un eclaireur".

"Shinhotan, Beginning of a new Era" is a relevant name for the exhibition preceding the transformation of the former Defense Security Command (Kimusa) into the Seoul MOCA, the Seoul branch of the National Museum Of Contemporary Art, Korea.

Kimusa was closed late last year and recently hosted ASYAAF 2009, confirming the potential of the site for contemporary art. This time, it's fully exploited, including the roof. "Space Transformation Project" bodes the transformation to come, while "Art Museum Project" showcases Korean contemporary artists from Gwacheon collections (in Kimusa's main building), and "Documentary Project" showcases images of this most controversial place in Korean minds. Overall, 300 works by 58 artists.

It's as much an end as a beginning : this is the last opportunity to visit this very intriguing place before it mutates into something completely different.

You have absolutely no excuse : admission is free.

Shinhotan, Beginning of a new Era - National Museum Of Contemporary Art, Seoul / 신호탄 - 국립현대미술관, 서울관 건립예정지
2009.10.22 - 2009.12.06
165 Sogyeok-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, ROK
Tel: +82.2.2188.6000
seoul.moca.go.kr
artmu.moca.go.kr

Seoul Village 2009