Where the Tide Has Been

Seoul Museum of Art presents Where the Tide Has Been, an exhibition of media artworks in collaboration with the Han Nefkens Foundation, Barcelona. The exhibition will be presented from September 3, 2020 to February 14, 2021 at SeMA, Buk Seoul Museum of Art in Exhibition Room 2 and Project Gallery 2 in Seoul. The exhibition introduces 14 artworks by 13 participating artists from the media art collection of Seoul Museum of Art and the Han Nefkens Foundation. Previous to the exhibition, the museum and foundation co-presented the Korean Video Art Production Award 2019 (winner: Moojin Brothers), which led to this presentation of media art collections from the two institutions.

Founded in 2009 in Barcelona, Spain, the Han Nefkens Foundation is a non-profit organization focused on supporting artists in the field of video art. The current exhibition at Seoul Museum of Art marks the foundation’s first collaboration with a Korean art institution. The Han Nefkens Foundation has previously presented the Video Art Award in partnership with world-renowned art institutions and cultural events, including the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art, Bangkok Art & Culture Centre, ARCOmadrid, and Loop Barcelona.

The title of the exhibition, Where the Tide Has Been, references the Korean title of the film adaptation of M.L. Stedman’s novel, The Light Between Oceans, reflecting on the themes of commerce, trade, imperialism, and globalization through historical events set in the ocean. From afar, its history appears linear in narrative, much like the horizon, but from up close, the waves reveal different shapes and patterns with every highs and lows of the tide. The waves—reaching the shore through the dynamic force of the sea after countless cycles of peaking, and breaking into white foam—ultimately represents the traces of time.

The exhibition follows a narrative which unfolds from early modernism to globalization. Including Moojin Brother’s work, Orbital Squares (2020), Tying (2014/2016) by Yongju Kwon, Cheonggyecheon Medley (2010) by Kelvin Kyung Kun Park, Please Return to Busan Port - From Tales of a City (2012) by Ayoung Kim, Postcards (2013) by Sanghee Song, Man of Sorrows (2001) by Bill Viola, Tooba (2002) by Shirin Neshat, Avènements (2004) by Fabien Rigobert, 1395 Days Without Red (2011) by Anri Sala, White is the Color 1, 2 (2002) by Diana Thater, Ho!Ho!Ho! Merry Christmas - Battle of Easel Point - Memorial Project Okinawa (2003) by Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba, The Colony (2017) by Dinh Q. Lê, Ebb and Flow (2012) by Gabriel Mascaro will be presented in order. The exhibition would inspire viewers to immerse themselves in the diverse narratives of the works, which ultimately aims to bring attention to the silenced voices that live life through the challenges and struggles created by today’s ruthless free market and technological obsession. At the same time, it hopes to revitalize the dreams and imagination of modernity that strived to fundamentally change the lives of people.