Hyundai Motor Company and National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Host 'Project Hashtag 2022'

At the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art until April 9 next year

[Asia Economy Reporter Kiho Sung] Hyundai Motor Company and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) will reveal the results of this year’s selection for ‘Project Hashtag,’ a new concept open call program for next-generation creators conducted as part of their mid- to long-term partnership.

Hyundai Motor and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art announced on the 6th that the exhibition of the results of this year’s open call program, ‘Project Hashtag,’ will be held at the MMCA Seoul (located in Jongno-gu, Seoul) until April 9, 2024.

First launched in 2019 and now in its third edition, ‘Project Hashtag’ is a five-year project running through 2023 that serves as an open creative platform supporting creators to freely explore experimental ideas without restrictions on genre or theme.

The name ‘Project Hashtag’ signifies the support for promising creators from various fields to unleash their infinite potential, just like countless posts connected by hashtags (#) on social network platforms.

Each year, two teams are selected and awarded 30 million KRW in creative support funds along with studio space at the MMCA Changdong Residency, and are given the opportunity to present their creative outcomes at MMCA Seoul.

‘Project Hashtag’ accepts applications from teams of at least two members, including creators, planners, and researchers, and the selection process consists of two stages: document screening and interviews. The call for applications was conducted online throughout March.

Among the 108 teams that participated this year, the ‘Lost Air’ team and the ‘Crypton’ team were finally selected. Both teams plan to present works in various genres such as installation, performance, and video, offering young artists’ intriguing perspectives on the intersection with reality after the pandemic.

The ‘Lost Air’ team will present the ‘Rave Geometry’ project, which explores the significance of specific local venues in the domestic underground music scene. From July to September, they organized electronic music performances across various locations in Seoul, including Euljiro and Seongsu, recording spatial data with LiDAR sensors. This data will be reconfigured into immersive media installations and various video works to reconstruct the performance sites for the exhibition.

The ‘Crypton’ team will showcase a work that presents ecological terrain changes caused by the climate crisis as a virtual island, questioning and exploring the values of labor and capital. The virtual tourist destination ‘KoKo Killing Island’ created by Crypton borrows its name and geography from the Cocos Islands in the southern hemisphere, where Charles Darwin studied atoll formation. On this virtual island, visitors can explore and order virtual specialties through low-carbon emission NFT (Non-fungible token) technology.

During the exhibition period, a total of seven related events including talks, workshops, and performances will be held. In the final week of the exhibition (April 3?9, 2024), ‘Project Hashtag Week’ will feature an after-party by the ‘Lost Air’ team and the ‘Goodbye KoKo’ performance by the ‘Crypton’ team.

A Hyundai Motor representative stated, “Project Hashtag will record the present and provide new experiences for the future based on an expanded worldview that transcends reality and virtuality,” adding, “Through a solid partnership with the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Hyundai Motor will continue to contribute to the development of the domestic cultural and artistic community by providing a platform for diverse experiments and collaborations among next-generation Korean creators.”

Meanwhile, besides ‘Project Hashtag,’ Hyundai Motor also collaborates with the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art to sponsor large-scale solo exhibitions of mid-career domestic artists, striving to expand the base and ensure the continuous development of Korea’s cultural and artistic sectors.

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