[Gallery Walk] "Seeking Symbiosis Beyond Art" National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Hosts 'Project Hashtag'

Hyundai Motor Company and National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Joint Project
Rice Brewing Sisters Club and Labppi Artwork Unveiled

An exhibition showcasing the fresh and diverse creative works of next-generation creators is coming to audiences in one place.

Umupimak of the 'Rice Brewing Sisters Club'.
[Photo courtesy of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art]

Hyundai Motor Company and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) announced on the 2nd that they will hold the exhibition "Project Hashtag 2023." Now in its fourth year, "Project Hashtag" is an open creative platform that supports creators in freely exploring experimental ideas without restrictions on genre or theme.

Each year, the project selects two teams, providing each with creative funding and a studio space within the MMCA Changdong Residency. Additionally, the creative outcomes are exhibited at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. This year’s exhibition runs from the 3rd of this month until April 7th of next year.

Among the 102 teams that participated in this year’s call, the two final selected teams are "Rice Brewing Sisters Club" and "lab B." Both teams received creative funding (30 million KRW) and studio space (Changdong Residency) to complete their projects.

Rice Brewing Sisters Club (Son Hyemin and Yoo Soyoon) presented art that expands the concept of artistic practice based on collaboration between non-human and human, and between humans and communities, into the idea of "social fermentation." They exhibit the forest space "Holobiont Galaxy," made of "Umu Film" developed using agar.

The Holobiont Galaxy space is divided by partitions, all made from Umu Film produced from agar. Various sculptures placed throughout the exhibition space are lumps of Umu, made by boiling agar.

Since 2020, they have researched seaweed from the Busan region, focusing especially on agar, which becomes liquid at low temperatures and quickly solidifies at room temperature. They reveal work that emerged from contemplating whether agar’s properties could serve as an alternative to environmentally polluting plastics or fabrics. The artists also discuss symbiosis through the use of Umu lumps, which act as a kind of microbial medium for cultivating organisms.

How to Obtain 'Rappi's' Corn Tutorial.
[Photo by National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art]

The artist collective lab B (Kang Minjung, Ahn Gayoung, Choi Hyeryeon, and Jeningi) is a visual arts team that researches social issues arising from current technological culture and generates meaningful discourse on the role of contemporary visual arts. Their project "From Tilling the Fields to Hitting the MMCA!" proposes the concept of "playbor," a form of labor disguised as play, offering a space to contemplate the meaning of labor and exchange value.

In March of this year, they focused on the bustling scene in front of the Seoul Museum of Art during lunchtime. Most of the crowd had voluntarily gathered to participate in an event by a financial service company, where people received money by opening and tapping the company’s mobile app. lab B defined playbor as a phenomenon illustrating human alienation in an automated society and attempted to visualize this through their work.

During the exhibition period, approximately 17 related events including creator workshops, talks, and performances will be held. The exhibition will be open at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Seoul until April 7th of next year.

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