Installation Work "Genko-An 03062"
On View Until August 10
The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art announced on July 21 that as part of the July program for the multidisciplinary art project 'Forest,' it will present the large-scale multimedia installation 'Genko-An 03062' by renowned German composer and director Heiner Goebbels at the MMCA Multiverse Space in Seoul until August 10. This exhibition is being held as part of the multidisciplinary art project 'Forest,' which began on July 14.
'Genko-An 03062' by Heiner Goebbels, which will be on view at the MMCA Multiverse Space in Seoul for about a month, was inspired by the artist's visit to Genko-An Temple in Kyoto in 1992. The visual experience of observing the garden through the temple’s round and square windows was transformed into an auditory and synesthetic experience. This series has since been adapted for various cities and spaces, with versions reflecting the unique characteristics of each location, including Berlin (2008), Darmstadt (2012), Lyon (2014), Moscow (2017), and Bogota (2019). To highlight the site-specific nature of the work, the title incorporates the postal code '03062' of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul.
'Genko-An 03062' is a large-scale multimedia installation that utilizes the entire 25 × 20 × 11㎡ MMCA Multiverse Space in a site-specific manner. Upon entering the Multiverse Space, visitors are immersed in a synesthetic experience where various elements that make up the performance?eight-channel sound, light, darkness, waves, sound, vibrations, and objects?are encountered without hierarchy. Although the work lacks a narrative or live performers, paradoxically, visitors become absorbed in the piece without recognizing the meaning of the language. The artist opens up an imaginative and poetic space created by the interaction of diverse elements, presenting a new possibility called 'the performance of objects.'
The starting point of the work is 'Walden,' a collection of essays by 19th-century American transcendentalist philosopher and naturalist Henry David Thoreau (1817?1862). The piece was inspired by Thoreau's reflections and observations of nature, based on his two years of solitary living in the woods near Walden Pond. The work includes the sound from John Cage's 'Empty Words' (1974), in which Cage artistically deconstructed Thoreau’s text, as well as 'Walden' (1998), an orchestral piece created by Heiner Goebbels in collaboration with painter, sculptor, and musician Robert Lutzmann. Added to this are ethnographic voice recordings collected from around the world, including Georgia, Azerbaijan, Siberia, and Africa.
Additionally, the voices of various artists and thinkers?such as John Cage, German playwright Heiner M?ller, political philosopher Hannah Arendt, performance artist Marina Abramovic, writer Gertrude Stein, novelist Alain Robbe-Grillet, and poet Anna Akhmatova?are layered like music. Within this polyphonic structure, visitors experience the texture and rhythm of sound itself rather than the meaning of language, leading to a new sensory experience.
Heiner Goebbels has designed his work to open the audience’s senses, spark contemplation, and evoke personal emotions through the multilayered voices of various theatrical devices and elements. Referring again to 'Walden,' he emphasized that Thoreau’s attitude of treating different sounds?such as the sound of trains, birds, and trees?without hierarchy is an important strength that contemporary art should possess.
Kim Sunghee, director of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, stated, "I hope that visitors will gain a new sensory experience through the immersive work of master Heiner Goebbels, where light and darkness, form and rhythm, poetry and song are intricately layered," adding, "Through the multidisciplinary art project 'Forest,' we aim to provide a diverse imaginative space where humanity, nature, and art converge."
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