The MAO Museo d’Arte Orientale,
Turin is presenting the exhibition 《Rabbit Inhabits the Moon》, curated by Davide
Quadrio, director of the museum, and Joanne Kim, Korean critic and curator,
with Anna Musini and Francesca Filisetti. Curatorial and scholarly
contributions were made by Manuela Moscatiello (Chargée d’étude, Maison de
Victor Hugo, Paris), Kyoo Lee (curator for the shamanism room, Professor of
Philosophy, City University of New York) and Patrizio Peterlini (director of
Fondazione Bonotto).
The exhibition 《Rabbit Inhabits the Moon》 revolves
around the figure of Nam June Paik (Seoul, 1932–Miami, 2006), one of the most
important artists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and a pioneer of
video art. Trained as a pianist and musicologist, Paik explored technological
progress in his works, using a mixed language that combined mass media and the
customs of western capitalistic and commercial society with the rituals of the
Korean poetry and music and the country’s cultural and shamanic traditions.
As inferred by the title, the
literary topos of the rabbit in the moon, common to many cultures in
the Far East—China, Japan, Korea—as well as Central Asia, Iran and Turkey, is
the starting point from which the exhibition’s other themes naturally branch
off. Inspired by the eponymous installation by Paik from 1996, in which a
wooden rabbit looks at an image of the moon on a television screen, in this
exhibition reality and imagination, tradition and technology meet, repeat and
mirror each other, in a synthesis of content that emerges as the exhibition
unfolds, through a complex game of references and reinterpretations.
Following the curatorial work
that MAO is carrying on, this immersive exhibition design continues to
highlight the coexistence of symbols, techniques, materials and objects from
different times and places, creating an itinerary free of fixed chronological
coordinates in which themes move in parallel, intersect, and cyclically
re-emerge, like in a piece of woven fabric.
In dialogue with Paik’s
works, Rabbit Inhabits the Moon presents pieces by
contemporary Korean artists, ranging from sound compositions to video and
installations, exploring how tradition can be reinterpreted and reimagined. The
exhibition is further enriched by the inclusion of Korean artifacts, on loan
from renowned institutions such as the Musée Guimet in Paris, the Museo d’Arte
Orientale ‘E. Chiossone’ in Genoa, and the Museo delle Civiltà in Rome,
spanning from the 10th to the 20th century. These artifacts, including ancient
maps, paintings, and ceramics, not only trace Korea’s rich historical and
artistic development but also highlight the cultural continuity between past
and present, as well as the intercultural exchanges that bridge the Eastern and
Western worlds.
A central aspect of the project
is the sonic and performative dimension, evident in both Paik’s work and that
of the invited artists. This offers a diverse vision of contemporary artistic
practices embracing concepts of sound, space, and body.
For the opening on October 18,
MAO, in collaboration with the Mercato Centrale, will host the Korean group
GOOSEUNG whose acrobatic and spectacular performances reinterpret musical forms
such as the Samul nori with an engaging approach.
This exhibition celebrates the
140th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Korea and Italy and is
organized in partnership with Nam June Paik Art Center (Yongin, Korea), the
Fondazione Bonotto (Colceresa, Italy) and with the support from the Korea Foundation.
The participating artists include: bela, Gloria Campaner, Park Chan-ho, Jesse Chun, Kwon Dae-sup, eobchae x Ryu Sungsil, Giorgia Fincato, Sun Hee You, Park Jiha, Shiu Jin, Ahn Kyuchul, Diana Lola Posani, Francesca “Heart” Mariano, Sunmin Park, Hyunhye (Angela) Seo.
