Nature-Embracing Museum Turns 40, Speaks Through Light

The "marquee" that glows like an ornament at the entrances of theaters and hotels serves both as a preview of the stage about to begin and as a sign of welcome. Philippe Parreno's work "Marquee" hangs in the lobby of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) Gwacheon, greeting visitors. Made of neon, light bulbs, and metal structures, the work glows, flickers, and changes brightness.

This marks the beginning of "MMCA Gwacheon 40th Anniversary: Imaginations of Light," which opens on the 10th to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Gwacheon venue's opening. Beyond the work that heightens anticipation, one can also see "The More the Better" by Nam June Paik, the founder of video art who could be called a pioneer of "light art."

The Gwacheon venue opened in 1986 ahead of the Seoul Olympics, designed by architect Kim Tae-soo. As a museum nestled in nature, it served as the backbone of the MMCA and led major currents of Korean art history until the opening of the Seoul venue in 2013. This exhibition commemorating the 40th anniversary views light as a medium connecting space, artwork, and visitors, and carries the subtitle "Imaginations of Light."

Passing "The More the Better" and entering toward the exhibition hall, Kim Ayoung's "Delivery Dancer's Sphere: Inverse" shines from the front of the open space. Because it is installed in the third-floor bridge space, looking up at it resembles facing the stained glass of church architecture. Kim Ayoung has woven together technology and data, platform labor and virtual worlds into mythical narratives. In the journey of two figures crossing a virtual city, speed and time, past and future, reality and virtuality intersect. The irregular, non-rectangular monitor is distinctive; after touring the exhibition space, the artist presented a site-specific work by arranging LED panels to fit this space. The mechanical futuristic cityscape blends with the nature beyond the glass windows, adding to the pleasure of viewing.

In the new space, the Second Circular Gallery, visitors can encounter "master of light" James Turrell. His work is not "light to be seen" but "light to be experienced." Entering along the curved wall, one faces a square of light. The light changes color very slowly and gradually, over the course of two and a half hours. The work, purchased and donated to the museum last year by the Museum Development Committee (MDC), is being unveiled for the first time in this exhibition.

Ivan Navarro, who hails from Santiago, the capital of Chile, and works in New York, constructs infinite space with neon and mirrors. For him, having experienced a period of military dictatorship, electricity and light are power and control, anxiety and a metaphor for violence. "Echo (Brick)" is a work like an endlessly deep well whose bottom cannot be seen. Fear and wonder, anxiety and beauty exist in one place. His 2011 work "Untitled (Twin Towers)" consists of two low, square glass boxes. It is a trace of the buildings that disappeared in the September 11 terrorist attacks of 2001. Unlike its exterior, the inside of the work reveals an infinitely deep space. Instead of the towering buildings, the collapsed depth speaks of loss. This exhibition is about quality over quantity. Encountering, at a national museum, works that would require expensive admission fees at private museum exhibitions reflects the museum's elevated status. Kim Ayoung's work is all the more special, having drawn attention in overseas exhibitions including solo shows at Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart in Berlin, MoMA PS1 in New York, and the Van Abbemuseum in the Netherlands.

The outdoor sculpture park project worth watching has been given the name "Resting Place." It shows the history and public value of the sculpture park—where 84 sculptures are placed here and there across an area of 10,000 pyeong—through new works by young artists. Kim Ha-neul's "Styrofoam Sofa (Fish Box)," which arranges chairs bluer than the sky in a circle, gives new possibilities to modular chairs made from waste styrofoam discarded at fish markets, speaking of circulation. Ha Ji-hoon's "Jari," which started from the woven mat, is a work that layers traditional floor-sitting culture with modern rest. Bang Hyo-bin's "Orbit of Rings," positioned beside Kwak In-sik's stone-tower-type installation, uses repetitions of winding metal lines to connect people and space, artwork and landscape. Works such as Lim Jung-ju's "Non-Eloquent" and Hwang Hyung-shin's "Reconstructed Landscape" present various possibilities depending on the viewer's perspective. Visitors may sit, lean, and rest.

The exhibition runs until November 29, and the works by Turrell and Navarro can be seen only until the end of October next year. Gwacheon venue integrated admission is 3,000 won.