Ayoung Kim wins inaugural ACC Future Prize

The National Asian Culture Center (ACC) (President Lee Kanghyun) of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism is proud to announce the creation of the ACC Future Prize. This prestigious biennial award will honor an artist or team demonstrating groundbreaking artistic thought and potential. It aims to recognize and foster innovation in the arts, particularly in areas where various disciplines converge and merge. By celebrating creators who introduce innovative artistic expressions that project future values and possibilities, the ACC continues its commitment to enhancing the cultural landscape.

The benefits associated with the ACC Future Prize include substantial support for production infrastructure, offering up to KRW 300 million (210,000 USD) to cover production expenses. Additionally, the prize facilitates opportunities for international exhibitions. The prize, in particular, is tailored to artists who utilize the expansive ACC Creation Space 1(which spans 1,560㎡) to its fullest potential, blending new digital cultures and technologies to forge a future-oriented artistic sensibility. The prize underscores the ACC’s role as a pivotal hub for producing and showcasing content that amalgamates diverse Asian cultures through innovative artistic fusion.

The ACC aims to present new values and discourses that inherit the universal values of humanity and expand the perspective of contemporary Asia. This forward-thinking initiative seeks to expand our understanding of the artistic landscape as it evolves through periods of societal transformation, focusing on interactions among humans, the environment, and technology.

The ACC has selected Ayoung Kim as the first awardee. In 2023, the ACC gathered recommendations of artists for the ACC Future Prize from over 20 domestic and international experts. From these recommendations, four artists were chosen in the initial selection round. Proposals from these selected artists were then reviewed to determine the final winner. The panel of judges for the ACC Future Prize 2024 praised Ayoung Kim for her distinctive approach, which “skillfully weaves multi-layered visual elements into a complex and impactful narrative, finding it particularly compelling.”

Lee Kanghyun, President of the National Asian Culture Center, stated, “This prestigious award program of the ACC Future Prize is designed to identify and celebrate creators and producers who exhibit exceptional originality and a penchant for experimentation in contemporary art,” adding, “Our goal is to position the ACC Future Prize as the foremost award in Asia for fusion & convergence arts.”

The exhibition of the ACC Future Prize: Ayoung Kim is presented at ACC Creation Space 1 from August 30, 2024 to February 16, 2025.

About Ayoung Kim
Ayoung Kim (S.Korea) In her multifaceted practice, Ayoung Kim synthesizes the outcomes of far-reaching speculation, establishing connections between biopolitics and border controls, the memories of stones and virtual memories, and ancestral origins and imminent futures. These narratives take the forms of video, moving image, VR, game simulation, sonic fiction, diagrams, and texts that the artist presents as exhibitions, screenings, performances, and publications. Kim decisively integrates geopolitics, mythology, technology, and futuristic iconography in her work, and she retroactively seeks speculative time to infiltrate the present. Ayoung Kim has presented her works at MoMA, New York (2024, forthcoming), M+, Hong Kong (2024), Sharjah Biennial 15 (2023), Ars Electronica Festival, Linz (2023); HEK (House of Electronic Arts), Basel (2023); IFFR International Film Festival Rotterdam (2023); CPH:DOX Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (2023); National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Seoul, Gwacheon and Cheongju (2024, 2023, 2022, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016); Kuandu Biennial, Taipei (2022); Asian Art Biennial, Taichung (2021); Videobrasil, São Paulo (2021); Berlin International Film Festival (2020); Busan Biennale (2020); Gwangju Biennale (2018); Ilmin Museum of Art, Seoul (2018); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2016); and the 56th Venice Biennale (2015), among others. Kim is a recipient of the Golden Nica Award, Prix Ars Electronica, Austria (2023), Terayama Shuji Prize, 37th Image Forum Festival, Japan (2023), a finalist of the Korea Artist Prize, MMCA (2019), and a recipient of the Young Artist of the Year Award, Ministry of Culture, Korea (2015). Her works are included in the collections of the Tate, UK; Frac Lorraine, Metz; Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah; Kadist Foundation, San Francisco; Simon Lee Foundation Institute of Contemporary Asian Art at the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth; MMCA, Korea; Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul; Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul; Busan Museum of Art, Busan; Museum of Contemporary Art Busan, Busan; and Joaquim Paiva Collection at Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, among others.