KMK: Beginning of a New Era

Heralding the coming Seoul Museum of Contemporary Art a special exhibition was held last fall. The site of the exhibition was the former headquarters of Defense Security Command. It was formerly a grim and shunned place known for torture during Korea’s darker times. Now, however, it has been reborn as a space to showcase art and will be the future site of the Seoul Museum of Contemporary Art.

I’m sorry I didn’t blog about this beforehand. I just found the photos I took a few days ago and knew I had to post something right away. The exhibit was one of the best I’ve seen in Korea. The range of artists and sheer dept of the talent blew me away. Sure, there were a few whom I didn’t even begin to fathom why they executed their vision they way the did, but that’s what’s so grand: everyone can see what they want and find what they can (or can’t) in each work.

What made this exhibition so unique was the scope. The artists included painters, sculptors, directors, architects, and designers ranging from the old to the young and from the established to the newly flourishing. We caught it on the last day and I must say that that was not enough to appreciate the sheer volume of the works. Floor after floor of artwork laid out in a skeletal wreck of a building so creepy you could almost see the ghosts wandering just beyond the next corner.

You couldn’t be there. I’m sorry for that, but I do have the next best thing: Photos!

Enjoy.