The 《MMCA Performing Arts : Waiting for Forest》 is a project that
critically examines the role of art museums in the Anthropocene and explores
the complex relationship between humans and forests. We began by reflecting on
how today’s forests differ from those of the past, and how we as human beings
might have related to forests in earlier times. While this project started with
a deep contemplation of what forests mean to us, it ultimately returned to us a
reverse question: what are humans to the forest?
This project will take place from May 2025 to
January 2026, featuring a different program each month. This year, MMCA
Performing Arts aims to diversify and expand the critical perspectives explored
in the previous series. For example, one of the key critical issues is the
controversy surrounding the approach of “creating forests” to offset a museum’s carbon emissions, as
mentioned in The Museum-Carbon-Project (2022).
A “functional forest” designed
to increase carbon absorption does not seem to fully align with the concept of
a forest as we have traditionally understood it.
These differing perspectives
on forests serve as a starting point for the recent MMCA Performing Arts
series. In Meditation on YouTube (2023), we
explored how the tired individuals of today enter a contemporary forest in
search of inner peace. This year, we aim to consider what the “classical forest” once meant and what it
means today, in an era where even meditation is inevitably mediated by social
media and digital platforms.
We begin with the theme of “Dense Forest.” If MMCA Performing Arts 2024 looked toward the universe,
then in 2025, our gaze turns to the forest. The dense forest can
also be seen as a proposition for diversity just like the universe. In the
expression samramansang (森羅萬象)—which refers to all phenomena, the world, and the universe—the Chinese character sam (森) is made up of the three same radicals for the character “tree” (木), and
signifies a thickly wooded forest. This illustrates the ontological
significance of forests within East Asian traditions of thought.
A forest is a
hybrid space where countless species of living organisms and microorganisms
coexist, and where the boundary between the living and non-living becomes
blurred. A dense forest is not simply a space full of trees; it is a place of
diversity and dynamism where innumerable beings are entangled and constantly
transforming. Both the forest and the universe can be seen as realities that
transcend human perception, as places of infinite possibility, and as spaces of
plurality.
The forest has long been a place of deep
emotional resonance and communion, or a “forest of affect,” one might say. Here, “affect” refers not to personal emotion alone, but to the social and
collective flows of feelings that arise between the body and its environment.
This year, MMCA Performing Arts moves beyond profound communion with the forest
to focus on the movements of emotion that are shared across society.
In his
philosophical essay Walden, which reflects on life in nature and solitude,
Henry David Thoreau wrote, “I weathered some merry snow
storms, and spent some cheerful winter evenings by my fire-side, while the snow
whirled wildly without, and even the hooting of the owl was hushed.” What Thoreau sought was not mere solitude, but a new relationship
with the world. Inspired by this, participating artists have translated Thoreau’s intimate world into their own works, offering moments of
reflection that reconnect modern individuals—many of
whom are disconnected from nature—with their bodies and
senses. These reflections extend beyond the personal and resonate with our
shared emotions and sensibilities.
The “Forest of Symbiosis” theme proposes a deconstruction of anthropocentrism. Just as the
noted American scholar Donna Jeanne Haraway once declared, “We are humus, not Homo, not anthropos; we are compost, not
posthuman,” so, too, is the forest a space of dynamic
interconnection among multiple beings as well as a place where diverse life
forms coexist beyond hierarchical dominance. It is also a “space of care.” Botanist and writer Robin
Wall Kimmerer notes, “In some Native languages the term
for plants translates to ‘those who take care of us.’” Similarly, the Latin root of the word “curating,”
“cūrō,” means “to watch over.” To care for plants and forests is to participate in the restoration
of life.
This also relates to the longstanding role of museums. The works
featured in MMCA Performing Arts listen closely to the voices of the forest,
transforming relationships with forests, land, and trees into physical
experiences to reexamine the direction of care. This is not about one-sided
human generosity, but rather about discovering reciprocal relationships where
beings—both human and non-human—care for one another while also seeking new possibilities for
symbiosis. Together with audiences, the project explores the contemporary
meanings and shifting roles of care.
《MMCA Performing Arts : Waiting for Forest》 blurs the boundaries between media and
genre, as well as between the museum and the forest, through a series of works
spanning theater, dance, performance, music, workshops, and lectures. These
multifaceted experiences are also an attempt to foster exchanges across a wide
range of forms, beings, and cultures. Later this year, in December, a
multidisciplinary research project titled Preparing for the Forest will get off
the ground, involving researchers from various fields in a practice-based
inquiry into the forest from multiple perspectives.
The MMCA Performing
Arts Showcase, now in its third iteration, will continue this year as well.
Notably, the 2025 showcase will take place in Seoul in September 2025 and in
Kyoto in October 2026 in collaboration with Kyoto Experiment, one of Japan’s leading performing
arts festivals. Kyoto Experiment is known for introducing experimental
performing arts to the public and exploring new dialogue and values within
society. Through such exchanges, MMCA Performing Arts will continue to support
emerging artists’ experimental practices while also
pursuing the expansion of artistic boundaries and the value of
interdisciplinary convergence.
