Venue : Asia Culture Center (ACC)

In The Other Face of the Moon, 22 individuals and teams across Asia from the worlds of contemporary art, design, and architecture showcase their new creations, which are inspired by the collections of the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations (Mucem). The pieces featured in this exhibition introduce folk traditions and the daily lives of people around the Mediterranean as seen through the unique perspectives of the respective creators.

Through extensive studies of Mucem’s vast collections, which consist of more than a million items, and tapping into their unique imaginations, the creators participating in this exhibition created pieces that present the everyday cultures of the Mediterranean under a new light. This exhibition also proposes a “different reading” of the folk cultures, traditions, and exotic tastes found in the East and West, and the familiar and unfamiliar aspects of the respective cultures through the eyes of contemporary art.

Contemporary art today explores the hidden side of the modernist values found in the Western culture. Powered by everyday experiences, societies, folk cultures, and popular traditions, many contemporary artists have been proposing new ways to approach exotic tastes, mixed cultures, and differences. In this context, The Other Face of the Moon asked Asian contemporary artists to create new works inspired by Mucem collections. The participating artists are quite familiar with the popular traditions in Europe and the everyday cultures of the region, so Europe to them may be as familiar as the face of the Moon is to us. It may make it difficult for them to view Europe in an “exotic” or “different” way. Despite this, the organizers granted this proposal because one of its main focuses is a creative transformation of how we compare and accept differences and the multiplicity of approaches to this “unfamiliar familiarity.”

The other face of the Moon has been evoking our curiosity and imagination throughout the human history, and it is frequently used as a metaphor for things that we cannot see but nevertheless exist. In this exhibition, the 22 individuals and teams explore the history hidden behind the popular tradition and everyday cultures of Europe and strike up intimate and creative conversations with that part of history. The pieces featured in this exhibition share the approach and the context with which Levi Strauss wrote about Japan and the East in general in his book The Other Face of the Moon. However, the creators offer their unique approaches that are poised outside the realm of known historic perspectives, rational analyses, and academic studies. Their exhibition reveals the other face of the moon that has been blocked from our view by familiarity, knowledge, and reason, and opens up a new realm for understanding Europe, the Mediterranean, and ourselves.

All of the 22 individuals and teams visited Mucem in Marseille, France to prepare their pieces. The featured works reflect the results of the creators’ observations and studies of the exhibits that suit their interests. The exhibition will also present visitors with infographics on the history of Mucem, and the images of the Mucem exhibits that the creators drew their inspirations from. The resulting artwork looks quite different from the exhibits that inspired these pieces, as the latter served as the starting points and the conduits for the creators’ imagination. Visitors will be treated to a chance to admire the images of the exhibits and the artwork, both separately and in juxtaposition with each other, with the curiosity and excitement one gets when observing an intricate puzzle.

 

+https://www.acc.go.kr/en/board/schedule/exhibition/1869