Moon Kyungwon and Jeon Joonho: Seoul Weather Station / Korakrit Arunanondchai: Songs for dying/Songs for living

Art Sonje Center presents two new exhibitions, Moon Kyungwon and Jeon Joonho: Seoul Weather Station and Korakrit Arunanondchai: Songs for living/Songs for dying.

Moon Kyungwon and Jeon Joonho: Seoul Weather Station
Seoul Weather Station is an exhibition that uses artistic imagination and interdisciplinary cooperation as part of a multifaceted approach to the rapid environmental changes that have come about through global weather phenomena and natural disasters. 

Historically, humankind has viewed nature simply as something to be conquered. But the environmental crises that have become visible these days—climate destruction, ravaged biodiversity, pollution, and so forth—send the clear message that the old perspective no longer is valid. Under these circumstances, art should be capable of exploring nature, the environment, and the Earth in new ways—and of suggesting different approaches that shift us away from the previous perspectives.  This exhibition was conceived as a temporary “weather station” that observes issues related to our climate environment from new and varied angles, while forecasting alternative possibilities for the future.

Moon Kyungwon and Jeon Joonho form a duo of artists who have investigated the functions and roles of art in proposing imaginative alternatives for the crisis situation and rapidly changing world that humankind confronts today. For the Seoul Weather Station exhibition, they present immersive installation artwork and a participatory platform to call for a change in our thinking about climate issues and to experiment with new challenges and adventures. The title of To Build a Fire (2022), the duo’s new work, comes from a short story of the same name published in 1902 by Jack London. While London’s story used a man’s desperate battle to survive in the cold to examine human survival in the face of nature, Moon and Jeon’s work portrays the Earth’s changing face as it traces the endless trajectory of time from a nonhuman perspective. Mobile Agora: Seoul Weather Station (2022) shows both the results of Moon and Jeon’s projects with different collaborators and the process leading up to their emergence. It also presents a talk program in which experts from different fields are invited to share their research on our rapidly changing climate and global environment. 

The exhibition is taking place as part of the World Weather Network (WWN) project. An association of weather stations, WWN was established by arts organizations in 28 countries, which came together to respond to the climate emergency and the global crisis of accelerating ecosystem destruction. With the Seoul Weather Station exhibition, Art Sonje Center is seeking to become a “Seoul weather station” examining the role of art and sharing alternative discourses in an era of climate crisis.

Collaborating with BKID, Com2uS, Jeong Jaeseung, Jang Younggyu, Jeong Sujong, MVRDV, RYU Junyeol, Spot/Robotics LAB (Hyundai Motor Group), Takram, workroom
Curated by Sunjung Kim (Artistic Director, Art Sonje Center), Soojin Lee (art historian), Heehyun Cho (Curator, Art Sonje Center)
Organized by Art Sonje Center
Sponsored by Maeil Diaries Co., Ltd.​
Supported by Arts Council Korea, British Council
Technical Support Hyundai Motor Group Robotics LAB
In Partnership with World Weather Network​​

Korakrit Arunanondchai: Songs for living/Songs for dying
Songs for dying/Songs for living is the first solo exhibition in Korea of a Thai artist Korakrit Arunanondchai. His video installation Songs for dying was previously presented at the 13th Gwangju Biennale. For this exhibition Songs for dying is presented together with Songs for living (created in collaboration with Alex Gvojic) in a theatrical context, where a traditional proscenium theater has been inverted to switch the role between the audience and the story, between that which possess and the medium of possession.​

Arunanondchai uses rich visual references alluding to animist ritual and contemporary modes of representation to present a story in which personal narratives are entangled with historical incidents to form a view on how personhood enters collective beliefs. In Songs for dying, the artist’s personal experience with the loss of his grandfather is juxtaposed with historical episodes such as the uprising and massacres of Jeju April 3 and the on-going anti-government protest in Thailand. Examining how these personal narratives and historical events are linked through a belief system formed equally by spirituality and propaganda, the artist raises questions about being and meaning outside of a Western ontological framework. In the process, he attempts to reflect on the source of a greater power and vaster energy through which the stories of the individual self and the community become linked beyond the level of the nation, the state, history, or political order. In this way, he raises questions about the cosmic origins of life, addressing the existential constraints of life and our inability to avoid the cycle of life, growth, decomposition, and death. Through his memories of singing at the moment of his grandfather’s passing and of the songs included in the funeral process, Arunanondchai pays attention to the inherent power of the song as a storytelling medium. His explorations of the medium of the song continue with Songs for living.

If Songs for dying deals with the separation between the spirit and the body, and between the governing ideology of the state and the collectivity of the people, Songs for living concerns how collectivity can be reformed through a belief in higher power, through the metaphor of the reunification of the body and the spirit. The animist symbols that appear as visual references in Songs for living, including ghosts, shamans, and a dying sea turtle, allude to the concept of time beyond the human lifespan. The artist has said that the “linkage of the spiritual and material worlds becomes visible when fragments of memory floating between the individual and community give rise to particular movements.” His synesthetic video and installation work is his attempt to share with viewers the energy and its transformative potential that these movements generate.

Curated by Sunjung Kim (Artistic Director, Art Sonje Center), Je Yun Moon (Project Director, Art Sonje Center)
Organized by Art Sonje Center
Sponsored by Kukje Gallery 

Further information is available upon request.
Press contact: juhwamoon [​at​] artsonje.org