From March 20th to April 13th, 2014, artists, critics and academics explored the theme of freedom through an exhibition, talks, workshops and screenings.
Kacey Wong – The Real Culture Bureau, 2012, installation view, Total Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea, 2014
Kacey Wong – The Real Culture Bureau, 2012
Chto Delat? - Angry Sandwich People or In Praise of Dialectics, 2006, installation view, Total Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea
Left: He Yunchang - Nirvana Flesh, 2013, Installation view, Total Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea
Adel Abdessemed, Lida Abdul, Phil America, Ivan Argote, Chim↑Pom, Minerva Cuevas, Chto Delat?, Cyprien Gaillard, Yang-Ah Ham, Andre Hemer, Tehching Hsieh, Zhang Huan, Jani Leinonen, Klara Liden, Armando Lulaj, Matt McCormick, Filippo Minelli, Wang Qingsong, Andres Serrano, Manit Sriwanichpoom, Clemens von Wedemeyer, Kacey Wong, Xijing Men, He Yunchang
For some, freedom might be, as in the case of Andres Serrano, exiting a precarious life or just being able to take a daily meal, becoming part of society again. Others, like Zhang Huan, are looking for freedom in the nonsense of their actions. Other artists use violence, in a military-like way, to feel and express their freedom, as in the battle recorded by Cyprien Gaillard.
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 representations they convey and the striving for independence and freedom they appeal to.
The distance from reality, created through fiction like More’s Utopia, allows for a reflexive perspective and describes possible future ways of living together. Doing this encourages and inspires to take on a critical and active position regarding contemporary social and cultural issues.
Utopian Days approaches freedom as one of the concepts attached to utopian reflections and this in a new way. Removed from the filters that divide practices and build stereotypes, the goal is to show that a quest for freedom exists in each living situation, may it be situated in local, regional or global, individual or collective struggles.
Utopian Days offered daily guided tours, talks, special screenings and workshops, and together with an audio guide, live streams, a video archive and video interviews with artists, hardcover catalog and more aspired to foster an exchange of ideas, both in and outside of Korea.
A bilingual website allowed visitors to share their experiences and interpretations of the works directly on the page or on dedicated social network streams through #utopiandays.
March, 2014
