The Total Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, is pleased to present Utopian Days – Freedom, a video art festival, presenting works from 24 internationally renowned artists and collectives. Artists, critics and academics will explore the theme of Freedom through an exhibition, talks, workshops and screenings.

All actions and scenarios from the videos deliver an outspoken experience of art, to enhance an awareness of self, and express a unique desire and search for freedom; taking on a number of different, unique possibilities of implementing it.

Utopian Days hopes to appeal to a broad audience, including people from both inside and outside the art world. The festival provides an interdisciplinary perspective, unifying sciences, criticism and fiction, and proposes a vision that goes beyond the boundaries of our contemporary conception of visual culture.

Freedom
Freedom is the first edition of a traveling festival called Utopian Days, each subsequent edition intended to be held in collaboration with another institution, focusing on a different theme. Its aim is to introduce and share new perspectives on social and cultural issues through artistic practices.

The 24 works of the festival, each created in a specific historical, social and cultural context, will be exhibited under one roof and expose the viewer to the very situatedness of striving for freedom and its attached representations.

For some, freedom might be as in the works of Andres Serrano, exiting a precarious life or being able to take a daily meal, becoming part of society again. Others are looking for freedom in the nonsense of their actions, like Zhang Huan. Some other use violence, almost military-like, to feel and express their freedom, as in the battle recorded by Cyprien Gaillard.

Artists: Adel Abdessemed (Algeria), Lida Abdul (Afghanistan), Phil America (USA),
Ivan Argote (Colombia), Chim↑Pom (Japan), Minerva Cuevas (Mexico),
Chto Delat? (Russia), Cyprien Gaillard (France), Yang Ah Ham (South Korea),
Andre Hemer (New Zealand), Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster & Tristan Bera (France),
Tehching Hsieh (Taiwan), Jani Leinonen (Finland), Klara Liden (Sweden),
Armando Lulaj (Albania), Matt McCormick (USA), Filippo Minelli (Italy),
Wang Qingsong (China), Andres Serrano (Cuba), Manit Sriwanichpoom (Thailand),
Clemens von Wedemeyer (Germany), Kacey Wong (Hong Kong), He Yunchang (China),
Xijing Men (China, Japan, South Korea),

*image (left)
Manit Sriwanichpoom
Pink Man, 1997-ongoing
video, performance 
courtesy of the artist 

To watch more videos, please visit the website.