MMCA
About the Exhibition
For the MMCA Hyundai Motor Series 2018: CHOIJEONGHWA, the artist created Blooming Matrix, a spatial installation that brought together a collection of objects from different places to coexist in harmony. Through a forest made of approximately 120 erect towers of flowers, in a space where light and darkness contrast, the artist blended time and space and connected heaven and earth, transforming the gallery into a space of silence and memory.
In addition to the eponymous artwork, the exhibition included Dandelion, Ice Flower, and Young Flower. Made from approximately 7,000 pieces of tableware donated by residents of Seoul, Busan, and Daegu, Dandelion, which measured nine-meters high and weighed nearly four tons, was presented in MMCA Seoul’s madang, or front yard. Each work manifested the artist's intention to give meaning to objects that have lost their functions, sublimating them into art. Working in wood, steel, and cloth in addition to plastic, which has been representative of his work thus far, the artist revealed an expanded materiality of objects.
About the Artist
Artist CHOIJEONGHWA (b. 1961, Seoul, South Korea) works in a wide range of installations utilizing common, cheap, or discarded goods from everyday life, such as plastic baskets, piggy banks, brooms, and balloons. Choi's methodology gives everyday consumable goods new life as works of art, breaking the boundary between high-end art and popular culture. Choi’s work is a metaphor for post-1990s Korean society, born of rapid economic growth.
CHOIJEONGHWA's works were featured in such group exhibitions as Museum (1987), Sunday Seoul (1990), and Show Show Show (1992). Throughout the 1990s, Choi designed spaces for youth that blended food, music, exhibitions, performances, and seminars: Bar Ollo Ollo (1990), Space Ozone (1991), and SAL Bar (1996) and Ggool (2010). Surrounded by Korean consumer culture, which underwent dynamic changes in the 1990s, CHOIJEONGHWA drew the club scene and popular culture into art, thereby weaving an intimate relationship between contemporary art and popular culture. The unique sculpting principles of the artist, who deciphered an era, were unfettered by mainstream discourses, which were polarized between Minjung art and Modernism. The artist not only expanded the limits of contemporary Korean art, but also garnered attention in the international arena for works that captured both regionality and universality.
About the Program
MMCA Hyundai Motor Series
The MMCA Hyundai Motor Series is a pivotal part of the decade-long partnership between MMCA and Hyundai Motor, which aims to expand the field of Korean contemporary art and its role in the broader global dialogue. Each year, MMCA Seoul presents a major solo exhibition featuring new works by a Korean artist or collective. Accompanied by seminars and publications, this platform offers audiences an immersive encounter with the prevailing currents and vibrancy of Korean art today. The series began in 2014 with a groundbreaking exhibition by Lee Bul, followed by Ahn Kyuchul, Kimsooja, IM Heung-soon, CHOIJEONGHWA, Park Chan-kyong, Haegue Yang, MOON Kyungwon & JEON Joonho, and Choe U-Ram, and culminates in 2023-4 with Jung Yeondoo.
Take a Closer Look
Editorial Video
MMCA Hyundai Motor Series 2018: CHOIJEONGHWA
