November 23, 2016–February 26, 2017
Asia Culture Center presents Club Monster a contemporary art exhibition that explores the point of contact between popular music culture and current art practices. Across these various genres, key words such as “human rights,” “zeitgeist,” “healing trauma,” and “sympathy” are recurrent leitmotifs. Pressing issues of global concern, such as terrorism, refugees, gender inequity, war, unemployment, racism, poverty, and cultural tensions are given urgent expression in both the popular music and the contemporary artworks on display in this exhibition.
The exhibition title Club Monster is derived from Metallica’s song, “Some Kind of Monster.” Monsters signify the individuals who face collective trauma such as war, threat of terrorism, social inequality of gender and race, poverty, and refugee status. Their individual stories unfold the current issues of human rights and resonate the other’s feeling of sympathy. Through the feeling of sympathy and compassion, we might realize that the various faces of monsters in this world are the faces of ourselves. Multiple voices of monsters possess the potential power to change the world and limitless creativity. Thus the exhibition title Club Monster is the eulogy to the people who courageously face the traumatic world and overcome it. Participating contemporary artworks and popular music in this exhibition share the themes of those individual stories and their spirits.
Club Monster has a two-fold meaning. On the one hand, it means a “artists’ club”; 21 contemporary visual artists and 50 popular musicians whose works on display in the exhibition get together like club members. On the other hand, it indicates a spatial atmosphere of the exhibition space as a “music and dance club.” The exhibition space will use interior design motifs, suggestive of an underground rock club, which were once popular gathering places for the young generation. Club Monster is a multi-purpose art space easily accessible to a wider spectrum of the public and where visitors will pleasantly engage with music and contemporary art.
50 musicians selected for the exhibition are influential to people all over the world in that their music gives common people courage to persevere through the often challenging journey that is life. “Imagine” by John Lennon is a good example of this kind of music. After the tragedy of the Brussels airport terrorist attack, the hopeful lyrics of “Imagine” became a means for the victims and sympathizers to express their condolences but also envision a more peaceful future. Lennon’s music has power to comfort people beyond the spatio-temporal limitations of the world. Music that reflects the zeitgeist and evokes feeling of sympathy in people will be presented in Club Monster along with contemporary art that shares affinities with such music.
List of artists: Yoko Ono, Gary Hill, Tran Luong, Bae Young-Whan, Pipilotti Rist, Simon Faithfull, Halil Altindere, Meekyung Shin, Hyunmi Yoo, Kiwun Shin, Darbotz, Caliph8, Minseung Jang, Hyewon Kwon, Sungsuk Suk, Seungchun Lim, Bokyung Kim, Xeva(Madvictor), Kiyoung Ko, Jinju Lee, NTPO
Asia Culture Center (ACC)
A newly established innovative center of cultural prosperity, the Asia Culture Center serves as the foundation where Asian cultural exchange and collaboration takes place. This groundbreaking venue promotes the creation, exhibition, performance, and distribution of cultural production as Asia’s greatest culture complex. Discover and experience the captivating and innovative culture that Asia has to offer at this complex center, where cultural enrichment and diversity is fostered.
