CURATORS Aaron Lister, Mark Williams, Jinsuk Suh ARTISTS Michelle Dizon, Zhen Xu, Jian Wei Wang, Yongho Kim, Kuang-yu Tsui, Lieko Shiga, Jinyeoul Jung, Dong Wensheng, Hyunjoo Kim, Minouk Lim, Mahardika Yudha, Silas Fong, Takayuki Hino, MadeIn Company, Eric Siu, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Seungwon Park, Tushar Joag, Henry Foundation, Donna Ong, Yang Fudong, Li Yongbin, Meiro Koizumi, Poklong Anading and Ringo Bunoan, Chitra Ganesh, Song Dong, Tzu-Nyen Ho, Charles Lim, Sun Xun, Li Pinghu, Zhang Ding, Chen Xiaoyun, Thukral and Tagra, Tejal Shah, Ma Quisha, Manny Montelibano, Double Fly Art Centre, Jet Pascua, Sarah Jane Parton, Lydia Chai, Steve Carr, Kate Woods and National Park, Murray Hewitt, Seung Yul Oh, Bryce Galloway, Shannon Te Ao and Iain Frengley, Mike Heynes, James Oram, Rebecca Ann Hobbs
Seoul's Gallery Loop houses the Moving on Asia collection of Asian video art—hundreds of single-channel videos selected by the Asia Curators Network. It is the centrepiece of Loop's programme of exhibitions, events, and publications promoting artistic exchange in and beyond Asia.
The show features forty-five works from the collection, and is divided into three instalments: New Town Ghosts (22 February–24 March), Movement No. 2 (25 March–21 April), and Who Cares About the Future? (22 April–3 June).
New Town Ghosts takes its title from a work by Korean artist Minouk Lim, which captures a slam poetry performance on the back of a pickup truck driving through suburban Seoul. The poet sings to and about the newly gentrified landscape, where traditional neighbourhoods have been overrun by high-density urban developments. Contemporary art in Asia is largely synonymous with the urban experience, and is pervaded by depictions of the street. Over the last two decades, video has emerged as a powerful medium to negotiate and activate the city in ways that extend beyond the simple representation of urban life.
Made In Company’s Physique of Consciousness (2011) sets the tone for the second instalment, Movement No. 2. A middle-aged instructor presents a series of exercises to improve physical and cultural fitness. The routine combines movements drawn from different cultures and ideologies, promoting commonality over historical difference. This instalment stresses that unilateral belief systems, established boundaries, and traditional cultural obligations are no longer fixed.
The third instalment, Who Cares About the Future?, takes its name from a video by Shanghai collective Double Fly Art Centre. Their nihilistic, throwaway response to the question is intended as a negation of both the future and the past. This is an art of the young and subversive, of the here and now, rooted in karaoke-video and YouTube aesthetics, in the collective actions the pranks and parties.
This final instalment also includes New Zealand videos selected by the curators and Gallery Loop Director, Jinsuk Suh. These works will enter the Moving on Asia archive, where they will be made available for future shows. They include Seung Yul Oh's The Ability to Blow Themselves Up (2004–13) and Shannon Te Ao and Iain Frengley's Untitled (McCahon House Studies) (2012).
The project also includes an Artist Focus section, highlighting major artists, and special screenings focusing on the activities of Hanoi Doclab and the Bangkok Experimental Film Festival—small, mobile artist collectives with strong political and social agendas. The complete Moving on Asia digital collection is also available for user-directed viewing.
