EXHIBITION

Songs From Knee To Chin

National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul-t'ukpyolsi, Seoul, 05/25/2016 - 07/10/2016

313 Gwangmyeong-ro, Gwacheon-si, Gyeonggi-do 13829

ABOUT

Songs From Knee To Chin-A Project by Sora Kim is a prologue to the special exhibition that will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the MMCA Gwacheon as well as a sound performance project by Sora Kim that is being held for the first time in the newly refurbished Gallery 1 space of the museum. Eight musicians who are active both at home and abroad take part as collaborators in this exhibition where the space consists of only non-material "sound" and visual images are excluded. The participating musicians are Byungki Hwang, Taehwan Kang, Soojung Kae, Minhee Park, Junseok Bang, Kyungho Sohn, Taehyun Choi, and Alfred Harth. This exhibition enables viewers to feel waves and stream of sounds as they flow from ten speakers and spread throughout the empty space of the venue with every fiber of their being, opening up a new dimension of experience and thought on sound, body, and space.

Sora Kim (1965~) is one of the representative Korean conceptual artists who has been making forays into open interpretations of humans and surroundings through video, sound, installation and performance based on entering into a relationship and the process of communication. Kim has composed that also acts as a sort of guideline for the eight musicians’ performances. Kim has asked them to make “songs that enter through the knees and leave through the chin,” entailing sound that passes through the body without any plan or purpose. To the artist, sound consists of air, the atmosphere, and the universe which passes through his or her body, and making a sound is not only a cosmic event but also a spiritual realm one can reach in an extremely physical manner.

The eight musicians have sought after the sound of existence through their different performances using the gayageum, saxophone, piano,jeongga, electric guitar, drums, and electronic music in response to Kim’s score. The eight original sounds produced in this manner were then combined into a single piece by music director Younggyu Jang through his post-production work. A sound work created through this complex production process (text score to sound performance to post production) is thought of as an interesting outcome of collective creation through a collaboration system between a contemporary artist and musicians.

In this exhibition viewers are able to experience space in a new way through the medium of invisible sounds in a venue where all free standing walls have been removed. At times viewers may have a tactile or physical perception of a resonating sound while at others mixed sounds, moving beyond their aural experience. Kim pursues the possibility of various changes and open interpretations through freely crossing nonverbal sounds in lieu of any logical continuity. For this reason viewers are able to generate their own narratives in this space of sound.

For More Information

Share this Exhibition: