Delivery in Art

The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA; Director Youn Bummo) is hosting the exhibition Delivery in Art at the MMCA Cheongju Art Storage Center (hereafter the MMCA Cheongju) from August 24, 2022 through January 29, 2023.

The MMCA Cheongju has held exhibitions suited to the study and display of the characteristics of its art storage center. This special exhibition is designed to provide new interpretations of the art storage center by focusing on its moving and opening of artworks.

Delivery in Art sheds light on delivery in contemporary society from the perspectives of art and art museums. The discovery of sea routes and the development of transportation, trade, and distribution have contributed to the birth of art museums. These transportation and distribution systems have been constantly updated to take on their present forms. Based on this history, the exhibition focuses on the connection between movement and art/art museums. It intends to explore diverse aspects of the interfaces between one of the characteristic activities related to movement, delivery, and the major function of art museums, exhibitions. 

The exhibition is composed of three sections. Section I “Delivering the Art Museum” examines the MMCA’s public functions and roles by illuminating its various programs, including exhibitions and education, from the perspective of delivery. It shows traces of the MMCA’s public support projects and public function of diffusing art and culture and expanding connections with the public from the establishment of the Ministry of Culture in 1990 until now. 

The Art Museum on the Move Project (1990–2009; renamed the Traveling Art Museum Project in 2001) and the Small Art Museum Project (which was performed at multiuse facilities from 1999 to 2007) were exhibitions delivered to various places. The Traveling Art Museum Education Project (2011–) is public support program that helps people appreciate and understand art in their daily lives outside the art museum. Moreover, Art Bank (2005–) broadens the scope of art museum functions by contributing to the dissemination and popularization of art culture by promoting the loaning of artworks and supporting the holding of exhibitions. The MMCA Cheongju Art Storage Center that opened in 2018 was the first art storage facility, something otherwise intended for preserving and managing artworks, to be opened to the public in South Korea. In this exhibition, Art Bank and the Art Storage Center have been interpreted within the framework of movement, expansion, and openness. In addition, the MMCA has operated diverse public programs utilizing new types of communication, including “Dear Art Museum on 30 Samcheong-ro.”

Section II “Art through Communication” introduces notable artworks from the twentieth century that experiment with transnational exchanges through the use of communication mediums. The development of cutting-edge communications technology led to interconnections, communication, and temporal and spatial transcendence. Many artists have fully applied the latest communications technology to their works and expanded the art field. By stretching the territory of delivery into communications and exchanges, this section highlights the pioneering communication art.

By creating replicas of artworks and distributing them, Marcel Duchamp’s Boîte-en-valise (Box in a Suitcase) (1941) caused a great sensation in an art world that otherwise emphasized originality and an aura of authority, as did the Fluxus movement in the 1960s and 1970s. In a similar vein, mail art, producing works by using the postal system, was an experimental attempt to obscure the distinction between art and life and depart from traditional art production methods by transmitting works and creating them jointly. The Global Art Fusion performance (1985) by Joseph Beuys, Andy Warhol, and Kaii Higashiyama was a transnational work of communication art in which artists on different continents exchanged messages of peace via facsimile. X1, X2 is a 1980s piece by Nam June Paik, who experimented with the possibility of using televisions as interactive devices. It symbolizes the expansion of communication, which is basic feature of correspondence. Electronic Café by Gum Nuri and Ahn Sang-soo from the 1990s was a space combining computer culture with an experimental artistic spirit. It shows monumental achievements of communication art using the early internet.

Section III “Delivery in the Form of Art” suggests new interpretations of delivery through the lens of art by presenting contemporary artworks that connect art with delivery in diverse manners. Delivery is not just physical movement, but a medium for the interfaces between art and society. These include digital transmission, circulation of art, capitalism, and up-to-date logistics systems. This section presents twenty works by ten Korean and international artists.

Section III begins with Provenance (2013) by Amie Siegel (US). It is a video work that back-traces the trading of furniture from the Indian city Chandigarh (which was planned by Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret). It captures transactions in artworks and their circulation routes under the artist’s contemplative and cinematic direction. Spirit and Opportunity (2021) by Song Sanghee reveals the dark side of capitalism through images drawn on blue Delftware tiles from the Netherlands. The images include animals killed in the wake of trade wars and the advancement of commerce into new continents and infectious diseases resulting from exchanges and migration. The FedEx Series (2022) by Walead Beshty (US) visually represents the transit of an artwork by shipping a glass box custom-made to fit within a standard-size FedEx box. It deliberately shows the damage and other marks resulting from a delivery process that inevitably involves rough handling by mail carriers. Friends in the Living Room (2022 ver.) by Bang & Lee reveals the movement of a message through optical fibers, while works by Park Bona, Ahn Kyuchul, Cho Sohee, Chun Kyungwoo, Ham Kyungah, and Michael Mandiberg enable viewers to perceive the delivery of art from multiple perspectives.

This exhibition themed around the concept of delivery extensively explores communication and openness, the relationship between art and the transportation system, and art/art museums and the public, questioning essential functions of art. Art/art museums that were historically monopolized by powerful men have been opened to and shared with the public, turning into public assets. This exhibition aims to search for new communication methods by designating the audience, who serve as an important intermediary for art today, as an exhibition delivery person. It is hoped that this exhibition will provide the audience with an opportunity to deliver meaningful artistic experiences by using their own tools and at their own speeds in a time when we are experiencing the fastest and most widespread movement in history.

The MMCA Cheongju plans to reorganize the visible storage spaces on the second floor to facilitate better appreciation of the art, and will display masterpieces from the MMCA Lee Kun-hee Collection on three occasions from September 6, 2022 through December of 2023. By removing the high walls and frames in the center of the visible storage and replacing the current glass with low-reflective versions, it will offer an environment where the audience can pleasantly appreciate the art. The works on display will include Women and Jars by Kim Whanki in the first section, two pieces including Shamanism by Park Saengkwang in the second section, and Paradise by Paik Namsoon and Shangri-la by Lee Sangbeom in the third section, together with archival materials.

Yun Bummo (Director of the MMCA) stated that Delivery in Art will provide an opportunity to re-examine the fundamental functions of art through diverse variations created when delivery, a highly familiar word to contemporary people, meets art.” He further expressed that he “hopes that it will inspire the search for new ways for the art museum to communicate with the audience, a vital mediator that activates the art museum.” Moreover, he mentioned that “the reorganization of the visible storage will solve issues involving the management of the Lee Kun-hee collection by enabling the preservation of the parts of the collection at risk of damage from long-term exposure to air at storage facilities with constant temperature and humidity and allow the appreciation of quintessence of Korean art through new viewing methods.”