The Ways of Folding Space & Flying

Moving from global warming bunker to virtual highway, Moon Kyungwon and Jeon Joonho situate their protagonist in a digital archival bubble that floats free of a future Venice inundated by warming seas. Revised from their 2015 Venice Biennale multi-channel installation, this version of The Ways of Folding Space & Flying explores an archaeological quest into human civilization by interweaving history with visions of the ecofuture. Within the gleaming, antiseptic pod of a complex digital interface, the surviving protagonist is empowered by access to an imbedded memory chip for entry into the data banks and virtual scenarios that constitute its continued existence. The title of the project stems from the Korean words chukjibeop and bihaengsul that reflect the human desire to surpass the physical and perceived barriers and structures that bind us, despite the apparent absurdity of such imaginings. Originating from Taoist practice, chukjibeop means a hypothetical method of contracting physical distance, while  bihaengsul refers to a supernatural power to levitate, fly and travel across time and space. The stellar project is part of the artists’ ongoing inquiry into making future sense via fantasy, which they perceive as a fundamental function of art in our increasingly uncertain and precarious environmental and socio-political landscape.

Moon Kyungwon + Jeon Joonho (South Korea)

Moon Kyungwon is based in Seoul and works as a professor at Ewha Womans University; Jeon Joonho lives and works in Busan & Seoul. Their site-specific collaborative platform was initially presented at Kassel dOCUMENTA 13 and since then, has been shown at the Korea Artist Prize exhibition at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Korea; School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Illinois; Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Zurich; Tate in Liverpool; Freedom Village Frieze Project in London; SCAI THE BATHHOUSE in Tokyo. Other notable group exhibitions include Altering Home at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa; 2050, A Brief History of the Future at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts in Taichung; The Return of Memory, HOME in Manchester; COLORI at the Castello di RivoliMuseo d’Arte Contemporanea in Torino; New Romance at the MCA in Sydney; ELEKTRA International Digital Art Biennale at the Arsenal in Montreal; GLOBALE: Exo-Evolution at ZKM in Karlsruhe; Lille 3000 at the Tripostal in Lille; Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale at FAAM in Fukuoka; The Future is Now at MAXXI in Rome; Singapore Art Biennale at the Singapore Art Museum; Home Works 6 at the Beirut Art Center; Multitude Art Prize at UCCA in Beijing; Gwangju Biennale in Gwangju. They were the recipients of the Grand Prize Noon Award at the 2012 Gwangju Biennale; the First Korea Artist Prize co-organized by the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Korea and the SBS Foundation; and the 2013 Multitude Art Prize.