MMCA
About the Exhibition
The MMCA selected Rice Brewing Sisters Club (RBSC, Ryu Soyoon & Son Hyemin) and Lab B (Kang Minjeong, An Ga Young, Choi Hye Lyeon) as the two teams selected for PROJECT HASHTAG 2023. The open call seeks to support multidisciplinary collaboration and discover creators who will lead the next generation of visual arts.
Started in 2019 in partnership with Hyundai Motor, PROJECT HASHTAG breaks away from open calls that limit themselves to the domain of fine art, and aims to support collaboration between artists, producers, and researchers from diverse fields and as a new platform of experimentation, expansion, and cooperation across the boundaries. Over the course of five years, two teams are selected annually, for a total of 10 teams.
Marking its fourth year, PROJECT HASHTAG 2023 has garnered more attention from creators this year. Applicants presented a wide variety of proposals for participatory programs related to the convergence of art and technology, such as AI, robotics, and the Internet.
In previous years, many proposals addressed psychological and emotional themes, such as human loneliness and alienation derived from isolation and social distancing. However, this year’s applications reflected the recovery of daily life after COVID-19 by focusing on more optimistic themes, such as exploring the recovery of relationships, play and comfort, and curiosity about the future. The review committee commented that this year’s proposals went beyond conveying the phenomenon of technological development and also addressed the issue of technology as means of communication among people. Kay Watson, a member of the review committee, said that she highly valued the fact that “the two selected teams this year excellently expressed how technology can contribute to society in the context of art.”
About The Rice Brewing Sisters Club
The Rice Brewing Sisters Club (RBSC, Ryu Soyoon & Son Hyemin) is conducting a research project on new materials based on marine microbes and microalgae, called Rice Brewing Sisters Production: Holobiont Galaxy. The project’s theme, “holobiont,” is about the possibility of marine algae, microbes, and the seaweed-based new material known as “bioplastic,” living in symbiosis with diverse beings including humans and the marine environment. Using seaweeds collected in Busan over the past two years as well as newly created bioplastics, RBSC intends to design an exhibition that will demonstrate a form of symbiosis in the museum. By operating programs with a material engineer, a marine ecologist, a performance artist, and a sound artist in the given space, RBSC experiments through the forms of an expanded collective and another holobiont-like collaboration.
About Lab B
Lab B (Kang Minjeong, An Ga Young, Choi Hye lyeon) focuses on widespread human alienation in the fields of production and consumption in the AI-centered, automated society of the 2020s. They question the phenomenon in which humans replace low-wage labor that even machines do not perform, give visual shape to contemporary phenomena, and stimulate discourse using the art museum space. During the project, Lab B will directly farm and harvest corn in a community garden. This corn, made into Korean-style popcorn, will eventually meet the audience in the museum at the exhibition. There, using an application that encourages labor disguised as play, visitors can earn points by performing missions given online and offline then exchange them for popcorn on the spot. As a result, the art museum becomes a space to question the current status of contemporary human labor and exchange values by inviting bodily participation.
About the Program
PROJECT HASHTAG
PROJECT HASHTAG is a five-year initiative that fosters the next generation of Korean artists through an annual open call. The program provides support for the creation and presentation of experimental artworks that push boundaries. Reflecting the fluid and open nature of the hashtag symbol (#), this comprehensive program empowers emerging talents to engage in imaginative interdisciplinary collaborations that redefine artistic expression. The program embraces diverse fields, including painting, sculpture, new media, film, design, architecture, music, dance, linguistics, biology, physics, poetry, fiction, and hypertext. Annually, two creator teams are selected for a grant, an MMCA Residency Changdong studio space, and a showcase at MMCA Seoul. Launched in 2019, this program stems from MMCA and Hyundai Motor's decade-long partnership, dedicated to broadening Korean contemporary art's reach and impact.
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