Moon Kyung-won and Jeon Joon-ho named MMCA Hyundai Motor Series 2021 artists

Moon Kyung-won, left, and Jeon Joon-ho / Courtesy of MMCA

By Kwon Mee-yoo

Artists Moon Kyung-won and Jeon Joon-ho have been named for the MMCA Hyundai Motor Series 2021, an artist support program co-hosted by the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) and Hyundai Motor.

The project is a 10-year partnership between the MMCA and the global carmaker, providing funds for new works and solo exhibitions at the state-run museum for mid-career artists. Artists can create large-scale works or experiment with new techniques, developing their artistry as they seek a breakthrough.

Moon and Jeon are the eighth in the series since 2014, following noted artists including Lee Bul, Kim Soo-ja, Im Heung-soon and Yang Hae-gue.

Both established artists with individual careers, Moon and Jeon have worked together since 2009, exploring the social function of art.

The duo won the Korea Artist Prize at the MMCA in 2012 and participated in dOCUMENTA (13) the same year in Kassel, Germany. Moon and Jeon also represented the Korean Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2015 with their site-specific video installation "The Ways of Folding Space & Flying." They held a solo exhibition "News from Nowhere" at Tate Liverpool in 2018 with new film "Anomaly Strolls."

A still from the making of Moon Kyung-won and Jeon Joon-ho's "News from Nowhere: Freedom Village," which will be shown at the MMCA Hyundai Motor Series 2021 in September / Courtesy of MMCA

"News from Nowhere" is a project Moon and Jeon have been working on since 2012, inspired by the utopian novel of the same name by William Morris, probing into the lives of people and the role of art after disasters

At the MMCA Hyundai Motor Series 2021, slated for a Sept. 3 opening, the duo will present "News from Nowhere: Freedom Village," a newly commissioned episode of their ongoing project.

Set in Daeseong-dong, a South Korean village within in the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), Moon and Jeon will once again deal with the role of art in a post-apocalyptic world. The two-channel video will be installed with a large-painting and archive materials as well as computer programs to interact with the video piece.

The MMCA said the exhibit will travel overseas starting in 2022, as the joint project's initial aim is to promote Korean artists globally. Exact schedules and destinations will be announced later.

"This exhibition will serve as an opportunity to newly engrave within the global and domestic art scenes with the remarkable line of works developed by the pair during the course of the their collaboration for a long time," MMCA director Youn Bum-mo said.

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