Arko Art Museum and Insa Art Space Unveil '2022 Annual Program'

Transforming into a Useful, Inclusive, Collaborative, and Shared Visual Arts Exchange Platform
Planning Public Programs Reflecting Pandemic Issues

Arko Art Center, Inmigong VI. Photo by Arko Art Center

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heeyoon] The Korea Arts & Culture Education Service unveiled the annual programs for this year at the Arko Art Museum and Insa Art Space on the 11th.

The Arko Art Museum will present various programs throughout the year centered on the acute social issues of the pandemic era, aiming to form discourse on the "Museum of the Future" and promote artistic practice.

Following last year's announcement of the four major operational strategies?“Utility, Inclusion, Collaboration, Sharing”?and their visual identity symbolized by arithmetic operators, the museum will continue efforts to enhance its social role (+), strengthen inclusive and eco-friendly practices (-), diversify interdisciplinary and regional collaborations (×), and spread a culture of sharing and communication (÷) this year as well.

The curated exhibitions will address the restrictions on movement caused by COVID-19, social divisions, and issues of regions and communities from multiple perspectives. To explore new directions for post-pandemic museums, public programs focusing on participation and collaboration among various art stakeholders will be expanded. Meanwhile, workshops and facility improvements aimed at eco-friendly practices and enhancing accessibility for people with disabilities will be continuously pursued.

The first exhibition of 2022 will open with the thematic exhibition "To you: Dangsin-ui Banghyang (Your Direction)," which examines the changed meaning of movement under pandemic-related travel restrictions. Following this, a curated invitational exhibition will feature a two-person show by overseas Korean artists Gwak Youngjun and Sarah Sejin Jang, deconstructing dichotomous definitions such as nationality and gender to explore multiple identities and their implications.

The second event of the year, the "Arko Convergence Art Festival," will investigate the emergence of technologically mediated multiverses and decentralized communities, experimenting with multiple networks. The final thematic exhibition, "Temporary Intervention," will examine the social value of contemporary art through various domestic and international community activities pursuing regional networks and participatory artistic practices.

The public programs will further expand the joint project planned last year with three domestic institutions. Based on the new theme "Prism," talk and workshop programs will be operated to capture the perspectives and voices of diverse social members, like the spectrum of light. Additionally, an international symposium on the theme of "The Museum as a Social Space for Hospitality and Communication" will be held. To this end, the first-floor project space connecting the inside and outside of the museum will be improved into a multipurpose space accessible and comfortable for various users.

To specialize user-centered spatial functions, the archive and Inmi-gong (formerly Insa Art Space) creative and research support programs will also be reorganized. Located in Wonseo-dong, Inmi-gong will operate as an exchange space where various experts centered on visual arts network with each other. First, the programs will strengthen inter-program connections through ▲'Art Talk,' a preparatory professional training program by occupation such as artists, educators, and curators ▲'Inmi-gong Creative Studio,' a process-oriented support program aiming for interdisciplinary collaboration ▲and 'Monthly Inmi-gong,' which compiles the previous two programs in various formats such as webzines and seminars.

Arko Archive will institutionalize research support programs utilizing its collection materials. A pilot program exploring various cases and methodologies for expert networking and open sourcing of materials related to domestic and international art archives and moving image institutions will also be promoted.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.