This catalog contains information on the MMCA Seoul permanent exhibition “Highlights of Korean Contemporary Art.”

MMCA Seoul's permanent exhibition "Highlights of Korean Contemporary Art" examines the flow of Korean contemporary art through 86 works from the 1960s to the 2010s, among the approximately 11,800 pieces collected since the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art's opening in 1969.
This permanent exhibition is an attempt to present a single perspective on Korean contemporary art, while also opening up the possibility of different perspectives and diverse interpretations based on the collection.

The exhibition is organized around six themes (abstraction, experimentation, figuration, hybrid/globalism, concept, and documentary) that have been majorly addressed in the flow of Korean contemporary art within Korea's unique socio-political situation, cultural changes, media shifts, and its relationship with the international art world.

The catalog includes a planning note by Bae Myung-ji, a curator at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, along with an explanation of the six thematic sections of the exhibition, illustrations, a panoramic view of the exhibition, and a list of exhibited works.

This permanent exhibition, which examines the flow of Korean contemporary art through the collection of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, is an attempt to present a single perspective on Korean contemporary art.
This opens up the possibility of another perspective and various interpretations based on the collection.
If history is not a single, fixed entity, but rather constantly reconstructed and reinterpreted according to the conditions and discourses of the times, then the history of Korean contemporary art also needs to be approached within a flexible framework that can encompass various layers of micro-narratives, marginalized voices, and cultural hybrid zones.
We hope that this permanent exhibition, which uncovers and re-examines the multi-layered dynamism and historical gaps of Korean contemporary art, will continue in the future.
---From "Bae Myung-ji - Planning Article"

Korean abstract art intersected with various layers of Korean society, including ethnicity, tradition, the Cold War, modernization, and institutions, and developed dynamically while intertwined with contemporary realities such as post-war anxiety and urbanization.
At the same time, abstract art developed as a collective movement, intertwined with the process of cultural translation in its relationship with Western and Japanese art.
---「1.
From "Abstract: Newness and Avant-Garde"

Park Hyun-ki recalled being deeply impressed by the sight of people gathering stones during their escape, building a tower, and making a wish on it.
For the author, stones are both material and cultural anthropological objects that project wishes and hopes.
---「2.
Korean Experimental Art: Objects, Time, and the Body - Park Hyun-ki, from "Untitled"

The pursuit of new figurative forms first appeared in the hyperrealistic paintings of the late 1970s, characterized by meticulous depictions of objects and people, and progressed to the folk art of the 1980s, which sought to practice realistic aesthetics in everyday life through criticism of reality and social participation.
---「3.
From “Formality and Realism”

〈Floor〉(1997-2000) is one of Seo Do-ho's representative installation works that explores the relationship between individuals and between individuals and groups.
Tens of thousands of tiny human figures made of transparent polyvinyl chloride (PVC) material form a unique structure that supports a glass panel with the palm of their hand.
---「4.
Hybrid Space: Diversification and Globalization - from Seo Do-ho's "Floor"

The works by Kim Beom, Park Iso, Ahn Kyu-chul, and Jeong Seo-young featured in this exhibition challenge stereotypes by maintaining the original form and function of objects while imbuing them with unfamiliar meanings and situations, or by revealing the imperfect relationship between objects and the language that defines them.
---「5.
From “Conceptual Transition: Between Things and Language”

This work is a unique form of performance documentary that uses the urban space of the Han River as a stage, inducing the audience to experience a series of events through physical movement, and it clearly demonstrates Im Min-wook's keen political and social sensibility.

---「6.
Re-examining reality through documentary and fiction - Lim Min-wook, "SOS"
? Among the adopted discrepancies