Seoul, September 22, 2015 – February 24, 2016, http://mmca.go.kr
The theme of the show was announced to be the relationship between humans and non-human entities. The title was taken from a wrong translation of William Gibson’s novel Neuromancer. And indeed the show consisted of works that made objects come alive or humans seem as objects. Another way to describe the show would be to call it a sci-fi themed show. Given the theme touches on the question of what does it mean to be a biological entity, the works elicited quite a strong emotional reaction from the visitors and they were addressing both the senses, as well as subconscious dreams and fears.
It was a show well worth the time and visit.
However, another thing became clear to me. This was the third time I visited the sequence of underground spaces that hosted this exhibition at MMCA Seoul. There is one large space, after which one descends on a long and narrow staircase deep underground. Since the first time, this space was giving me a very strange feeling, and it still is. But after three visits, I can with surety state that is not related to the exhibits but to the space itself. I googled and found that the property served as the Defense Security Command and the Armed Forces Seoul Hospital, military facilities requiring tight security, and it still maintains this feeling of an underground weapons storage or mortuary, if not torture chamber. The echoes are strong and the lights are dimmed… Who knows what was happening here…?
The “New Romance” show also had some “horror-like” exhibits, especially Patricia Piccinini’s sculptures, and one could expect that this would fit well with the eerie genius loci, but in effect, I didn’t feel that. It is a different eeriness one feels from Stelarc’s cyborg arm (a fear of an unknown future and/or a break of our body’s integrity), and the eeriness one feel’s from something invisible that hangs in the air and penetrates the space, like radiation – even though it is invisible, it is a real presence, based on past actions. These two kinds of eerie feelings clashed creating a discomfort of a different kind that the one induced on purpose by the artworks.
I tried to separate the space and the show, but in the end, it was one impression left behind after the show. A good show, but a space that be better filled up with rocks and concrete once and forever, or at least converted into a car park or storage room, where ghosts can wander around undisturbed.
