Kaleidoscope Eyes

“Picture yourself in a boat on a river, with tangerine trees and marmalade skies. Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly. A girl with kaleidoscope eyes.

Picture yourself at a museum in Seoul. It is the fall of 2022. In the open air, works of art appear. They are seen through the prism of your telephone: a dancing giant, flowers reading poetry, an artificial sun and a small cloud that hovers close to the ground.”

Leeum Museum of Art (Leeum), in partnership with Daniel Birnbaum, Artistic Director of Acute Art, presents Kaleidoscope Eyes, an augmented reality (AR) exhibition to be held at Leeum and Hoam Museum of Art (Hoam) from September 2–November 27. The exhibition presents an array of AR works conceived by internationally acclaimed contemporary artists against a backdrop of structures and gardens created by world-renown architects and masters of traditional Korean landscape design. Kaleidoscope Eyes manifests artists expanding their creative vision into virtual realms and invites visitors to experience and share art in unprecedented ways.

Curated by Daniel Birnbaum, Artistic Director of Acute Art, a digital platform that has been producing and showcasing artworks that employ cutting-edge technologies, the exhibition presents 38 AR works by 16 artists, including Nina Chanel Abney, Darren Bader, Marco Brambilla, Julie Curtiss, Olafur Eliasson, Cao Fei, Ho Tzu Nyen, KAWS, Koo Jeong A, Alicja Kwade, Lee Bul, Lu Yang, Bjarne Melgaard, Precious Okoyomon, David Shrigley, Tomás Saraceno.

Drawing global interest with previous editions held in Beijing (2020), London (2021), New York (2021), and Singapore (2022), Kaleidoscope Eyes in Seoul also unveils Lee Bul’s new AR work, Willing To Be Vulnerable—Metalized Balloon Ver. AR22 (2022), commissioned by Leeum on the occasion of the exhibition.

Inspiring artists and visitors to traverse the borders between the real and virtual worlds, while interacting and communicating through the newest technological medium, the exhibition will provide an opportunity to imagine a future of infinite possibilities and challenge our preconceptions of engaging with art.

In conjunction with the exhibition, Leeum will host an event of presentations accompanied by a panel discussion, entitled, New Media Talk, on September 3. Daniel Birnbaum (Artistic Director, Acute Art), Seongeun Kim (Director, Nam June Paik Art Center), Lauren Cornell (Director, Graduate Program at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College), Hyunsuk Seo (Artist and Professor, Graduate School of Communication & Arts, Yonsei University) willl share their experiences in working with new forms of media, and discuss their views on evolving experiences in art.

Curator: Daniel Birnbaum, Artistic Director of Acute Art

Co-organizers: Leeum Museum of Art and Acute Art

Media partner: HypeArt

Credits
Directed by Sungwon Kim, Deputy Director, Leeum Museum of Art
Project Managers: EJ Cho, Heyeon Kim, Irene Due
Coordinators: Jungmin Lee (Exhibition), Naim Seo (Public Program)
Technical Support: Rodrigo Marques, Hyunmo Sean Yoo, Sarah Butterworth
PR: Rachel Chung, Suyeon Cho, Miso Han, Isabela Herig
Exhibition Identity Design: Ordinary People—Jeongmin Seo (Creative Director), Jaehee Hwang
Design Support: Kyungmin Lee

About Leeum Museum of Art and Hoam Museum of Art
Leeum Museum of Art (Leeum) and Hoam Museum of Art (Hoam), established by the Samsung Foundation of Culture in 2004 and 1982, respectively, preserves cultural assets of Korea and shares with the public their expansive collections ranging from traditional Korean art to modern and contemporary art of the world. The museums are dedicated to enhancing appreciation and understanding of art through exhibitions, artist support programs, education, research, and publications. Three of the world’s most renowned architects—Mario Botta, Jean Nouvel and Rem Koolhaas—designed the buildings of Leeum and Hoam embodies the heritage of Korean architecture, with its traditionally styled building and gardens.

About Acute Art
Acute Art collaborates with the world’s leading contemporary artists, providing access to cutting-edge technologies that allow them to translate their creative vision into new digital mediums—including virtual, augmented and mixed realities.

Press contact
Miso Han, Public Relations Team, T +82 2 2014 6553 / miso.han [​at​] samsung.com