How valid is the question of what lives really are in reality, when disasters and catastrophes are occurring all over the world? This exhibition begins from the exploration of Mundi Vita, that is, ‘lives of the world’ or lives within the world. If art can have a tiny handful of meaning in this contemporary world where all kinds of disasters and dangers lurk, it lies only in the fact that art never ceases to agonize, doubt, and question. 

In front of questions such as ‘Is sustainable life possible?’, ’What would be an alternative life to capitalism?’, artists of today ask for the meaning of life in this world. Instead of clear answers, artists testify to the absence of lives and signal towards an immeasurably vulnerable existence through all kinds of gaps, traces, memories, and images left by all the lives in the world. The artists of today endlessly and readily spread their tentacles, groping the absence, breaks, traces, and memories for the living. 

By turning the techniques of textile that possess traits of craft into a medium of contemporary art, Cha Seungean’s works that consist of thread and fabrics are a kind of condolence. Cha does this for those who’ve had to bear the trauma of facing reality in the absence of life as well as the all the dangers that endlessly threaten us. Not only this but also acknowledging that the essence of danger originates from ourselves. Particularly, the site-specific installation in the corridor of the 3rd floor in the Seoul Museum of Art comforts us by spreading the fissures and traces of life as condolences in the space. 

Lee Hyein records memories and sensibilities in ‘Empty Address’, which created in unpermitted places and is swept away in time, through her unique painting that combines solid architectural compositions and surrealistic elements. The artist shows an artistic examination and response to the current catastrophes in the new work , and in her 2010 work that is an uncanny déjàvu of the Sewol ferry disaster. These works allow us to hear a voice of introspection and record that tiny handful of meaning that art delivers in a world full of fear. 

As a part of a more practical approach, SeMA will hold ‘Reading Event’ and art education programs for kids. Through these artistic practices we hope to share a belief in the power produced by the human voice and in the very small changes that are potentially created by art.

*image(left)
Seung Ean Cha
Listening, 2014
site-specific installation (threads, tape)
courtesy of the artist