Exhibition title image of "apmap 2022 seoul - apmap review" at the Amorepacific Museum of Art, Seoul. ©Amorepacific Museum of Art.The Amorepacific Museum of Art (APMA) has gathered the works of Korean contemporary artists to resume the “apmap” project, which was halted for three years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This year’s exhibition, entitled apmap 2022 Seoul – apmap review, is held at the APMA from September 29 to December 18. “apmap,” an abbreviation for the Amorepacific Museum of Art Project, began in 2013 and this is the 8th edition of the exhibition. The project’s initial goal was to provide opportunities for emerging artists and promote outdoor public art and site-specific art, which were relatively unexplored in the Korean art scene.
Between 2013 and 2019, seven outdoor exhibitions were held at Amorepacific’s major business sites across the country, including the company’s Beauty Campus, the cosmetic manufacturing facility and logistics center in Osan city, the Amorepacific Research and Design Center in Yongin, the headquarters building site in Yongsan, and the Osulloc complex in Jeju. The artists who received commissions from the museum researched the unique characteristics of each exhibition site through on-site investigations and created works in the context of the exhibition space.
This year’s project will be the first time since the museum’s opening at Amorepacific’s Yongsan headquarters that the museum has exclusively gathered the works of Korean contemporary artists.
Partial exhibition view of "apmap 2022 seoul - apmap review" at the Amorepacific Museum of Art, Seoul. Photo by Aproject Company.The central theme of this year’s exhibition is “review.” With this main idea, the exhibition will survey the past ten years of progress by exploring the museum’s structure and elements in a new context along with the artworks. Through this, the museum aims to build a new future for the development of the Korean art world by contemplating a broader perspective in carrying out the “apmap” project.
The apmap exhibition invited twenty-two artists and art collectives who had already participated in the project. These artists employ a variety of mediums, including sculpture, installation, media, design, and architecture, presenting newly commissioned works that are also an extension of each artist’s previous projects.
By expanding their artistic practices within the museum space, the participating artists cover various topics that touch on the current state of the world, including environmental issues, personal experiences, artificial intelligence (AI), and humanity.
Participating artists include Hyungshin Hwang, who explores formative aesthetics and furniture based on an architectural structure; Buhm Hong, who works on visualizing memories that linger in space; Minseop Yoon, who creates three-dimensional drawings with black wire; Dongjoo Seo, who crosses a variety of genres from graphic design, multimedia, and installation based on anthropological research; and Jaiyoung Cho, who creates geometric shapes using paper materials to examine the relationship between spaces, objects, and audiences with the body.
Installation view of Oh You Kyeong’s 'Being Connected' (2022), "apmap 2022 seoul - apmap review," Amorepacific Museum of Art, Seoul. Photo by Aproject Company.OBBA (Office for Beyond Boundaries Architecture) is a team of architects who employ various site-specific technologies. Oh You Kyeong visualizes the relationship between various concepts, forms, and objects. OAA expresses relationships in architectural language and presents a work that has extracted and reinterpreted the structure of the museum. Bang & Lee turned their concerns about art after the pandemic into 3D animation, painting, and sculpture work, and Soo Hong collected memories using space and light and created a large light structure to stimulate the senses of the audience.
Installation view of Kim Yongkwan’s 'Rainbow Mirroring' (2022), "apmap 2022 seoul - apmap review," Amorepacific Museum of Art, Seoul. Photo by Aproject Company.The artworks of UJOO + LIMHEEYOUNG pinpoint social contradictions through kinetic-based works, real-time interactive works, drawings, and sculptures. Jungki Beak uses bronze and metal statues as antennas to free the statues from the burden of history. Soyoung Chung visualizes geological, historical, and political stories through installations, sculptures, and videos. Koo Hyunmo explores the boundary between nature and artificiality using everyday materials, and Kayip + Minseop Woo created a virtual sound creature based on an insect’s cocoon.
Yonggwan Kim arranged a rainbow-colored façade and installation that contrasted with the achromatic museum space. Kiwon Park used the exhibition space as a work of art and created a work reminiscent of a glacier in the museum space using everyday materials. Hee-Young Kim visually expressed contradictory values by printing texts and images from disposable items onto permanently usable ceramic tiles, and teamVOID, a group of mechanical and electrical engineering majors who work across engineering and art, raised questions about the museum system through interactive works.
Installation view of Yeojoo Park’s 'Sun, Moon, and Five Peaks III' (2022), "apmap 2022 seoul - apmap review," the Amorepacific Museum of Art, Seoul. Photo by Aproject Company.ADHD presents kinetic work that explores the phenomena of the universe and expresses them synesthetically using light and structures. Yeojoo Park reinterprets Ilwol Obongdo, a Korean folding screen with a landscape of the sun, moon, and five peaks, with light and enormous structures, and Jihyun Boo, who has a deep connection with the sea, uses discarded fishing lamps and lights from fishing boats to unfold the aesthetics of recycling.
