Humming Chorus

Artists: Anne Duk Hee Jordan, Eglė Budvytytė, Tetsuya Umeda, Chan Sook Choi
Curators: Sungmin Lee, Chaeyoung Lee, Kwonjin Cho, Heeseung Choi.

The NJP Commission is a new exhibition format presented by Nam June Paik Art Center in 2024. Through the NJP Commission, Nam June Paik Art Center seeks to present new productions by mid-career artists who deal with significant agenda in contemporary art and an in-depth look at their perceptions of the art world, and, thus to demonstrate the museum’s performativity.

The NJP Commission reconsiders the meaning of museums and art as a “performative museum” and an “active museum” in an uncertain world. A total of four curators, including the curators from outside Nam June Paik Art Center, co-curated the exhibition, and commissioned four artists that capture the crucial issues of contemporary art. The cultural backgrounds of Anne Duk Hee Jordan, Eglė Budvytytė, Tetsuya Umeda, and Chan Sook Choi differ, as do their means of expression and attitudes, but they all interpret and express the contemporary conditions that they face using a unique artistic language. With undefined chance performances consisting of gestures and sound, the artists express solidarity with objects, nature, and other non-human entities. Further, in focusing on migration, ecology, and marginality, they present a polyphonic voice, with tumbleweeds, microorganisms, and robots of teapot and clams singing together.

The exhibition’s title, Humming Chorus, stems from imagining each artist’s work as a song consisting of diverse tones and voices and refers to their harmony, though the sound and rhythm may differ. The artists reflect on the ecosystem and nature devastated by anthropocentric practices, and, by expressing solidarity with the objects surrounding us, they exhibit their identities as performative artists. Their works encourage audience to realize that museums are not merely spaces for the “exhibition” of beauty but places for sharing today’s vital stories and communicating them through art. Art, museums, and our lives in the here and now will form an intimate relationship once again and move forward by singing together.

Events
Preview program: September 11, 3pm
Curators talk & tour: Sungmin Lee, Chaeyoung Lee, Kwonjin Cho, Heeseung Choi

Performace Ⅰ: September 12–October 5
Tetsuya Umeda, Walk about Water

Performance Ⅱ: November 8–16
Eglė Budvytytė and Marija Olšauskaitė, Song Sing Soil

Performance workshop: November 8–9
Eglė Budvytytė, Some Were Carried, Some—Dragged Behind