[Gallery Walk] 'Into the Rhythm'... The Meaning of Museums as Contact Zones

2024 Arko Art Museum International Exchange Cooperation Exhibition
Collaboration with Swiss Zurich Nonprofit Organization OnCurating
11 Artist Teams from Zurich, Berlin, Seoul, and More Participate

"This exhibition is, in principle, an extension of the 'Event Score' that allows everything to be considered as art or a potential art experience." - Dorothy Richter, OnCurating Curator

Maya Minder, Green Open Food Evolution, 2022 [Photo courtesy of Arko Art Center]

The Arts Council Korea (Chairman Jeong Byeong-guk) Arko Art Center (Director Lim Geun-hye) expands the museum from a place for viewing exhibitions to a space for experience and life through the international collaborative exhibition "Into the Rhythm: From Score to Contact Zone."

This exhibition is based on the concept of 'Score,' which integrates everyday life and art, and was planned to discuss ways of coexistence within communities. The exhibition presents diverse perspectives, including East Asian food culture, the status of female artists in the art world, and stories of film, performance, and art workers whose activities were halted during the COVID-19 period. These are combined with Arko's performance programs to engage audiences.

Running until November 3, the exhibition features 11 teams of visual and performing artists active in Zurich, Berlin, Singapore, Seoul, and Jeju, showcasing over 30 works. During the 'Workshop Week' from the opening day until the 29th, 11 programs will be held, including collaborations between Swiss artists and Korean collectives.

San Keller, Hysterical or Naive, 2021 [Photo provided by Arko Art Center]

"Into the Rhythm: From Score to Contact Zone" is an international collaborative project that began in 2022, curated in cooperation with Dorothy Richter and Ronald Kolb of OnCurating, a non-profit organization based in Zurich, Switzerland, engaged in publishing and curatorial activities.

OnCurating operates the OnCurating Journal and OnCurating Project Space, focusing on producing critical discourse in contemporary art through curatorial practice and experimental exhibition formats. They seek to transform museums into 'contact zones' where diverse encounters, interventions, and situations occur.

A score refers to a guide or set of instructions for actions, performances, or presentations in music, poetry, choreography, and visual arts. This format extends from the 1960s Fluxus movement's event scores, which embraced the idea that "art is life." Dorothy Richter, OnCurating curator, explained, "In this exhibition, the audience actively participates by using the 'score' as a form of relating to others."

Elizabeth Eberle, The Proportion of Women (Frauen z?hlen), 2010-2021
[Photo by Arko Art Center]

"Into the Rhythm: From Score to Contact Zone" views performative and artistic acts as connected to physical rhythm, musical rhythm, and affect. The 11 participating artist teams explore themes such as the possibility of hospitality through invitation, creating symbiotic beings with others, the power of community and collectives, and embracing communities with different languages and cultures through works based on performance, choreography, sound, and video installation.

Works addressing the same themes reveal the cohesion and potential of collective power mediated by rhythm as affect. The participating artists include Maya Minder, !Mediengruppe Bitnik, San Keller, Son Yun-won, Stillnieman-Stoyanovich, Yagwang, Elizabeth Eberle, Yeo Daham, Tangerine Collective, Paloma Ayala, among others, totaling 11 teams.

Yeodaham, Hyangro, 2024
[Photo by Arko Art Center]

Elizabeth Eberle is an artist who has recently built archives concerning the representation of female artists in the art world, creating works with feminist perspectives such as "Big Sister" and "The Proportion of Women." By collecting various data related to women in the arts, her works visualize ongoing gender inequalities within the art scene and society, prompting reflection on the current status of women in the art world.

Maya Minder is an artist who addresses stories about food, evolutionary biology, and relational aesthetics through cooking, biohacking, performance, and media installations, sharing collective storytelling and knowledge within ecological thinking. "Green Open Food Evolution" is a media kitchen laboratory that attempts to connect various academic and life domains through cooking workshops. It features seaweed, primarily consumed in East Asia, depicting coexistence with beings distinct from humans. Alongside the exhibition, visitors can experience tasting a beverage mixed with seaweed and kombucha.

This exhibition is characterized by the participation of various networks and collaborating artists to reinterpret the methodologies and concepts of Swiss participating artists within current social agendas and situations. Notably, "Modular Structure (Edition 3)" by Stillnieman-Stoyanovich, who creates modular furniture by recycling waste, is produced in collaboration with "Piece of Peace," active in Seoul. Related programs on social inclusion and sustainable practices are conducted by "Green Recipe Lab" and "Art Parenting Social Club."

Son Yoonwon, Musical Note, 2024 [Photo by Arko Art Center]

The workshop "Mind the Gap!" is a collaboration between Elizabeth Eberle and the Korean women artists' network "Louise the Women," researching gender imbalance in Korea and exploring ways for change. During the exhibition period, "Score Activation" programs reinterpreting scores by Ha Eun-bin and Jong Dal-jeong will be held every weekend.

Lim Geun-hye, director of Arko Art Center, stated, "This exhibition will be an opportunity to reflect on the museum's function as a contact zone where new meanings emerge through interactions between diverse art subjects and audiences."

The exhibition is open from Tuesday to Sunday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., at Arko Art Center in Marronnier Park, Daehangno, with free admission.