Gyeonggi-do, Paju-si, September 5 – 29, 2015, http://mimesisart.co.kr/mimesis-art-museum/
The visit to this museum has been shaped by the long way it took to get there. I have heard some good words about Paju Book city, and I was curious about the place as well as about the museum. I can confirm that there is indeed a large amount of interesting and beautiful contemporary architecture, and the Mimesis Museum is one of the anchors of this publishing companies’ architecture theme park.
During my visit the place felt a bit like some sleepy industrial park, far away from everywhere, yet very close to North Korea (I realized that while driving for one hour along a barbed wire fence with regular military watchtowers). On site: Empty streets, a cinema without people, and a two-story shopping mall where I was the only customer. At lunch time, a few employees tumbled out of their offices, bringing at least some business to the bored coffee and snack shop attendants.
This was the setting for Mimesis Museum. There, it was equally sleepy. The front door was locked and I had to enter through the coffee shop terrace, passing unnoticed by the barista engulfed in her smart phone virtual world. The museum reception was completely deserted with no person in sight. Now I noticed why the front door was locked: The ground floor of the museum has been temporarily repurposed as a fashion photo shoot stage, with a group of models, photographers and some heavy light and flash equipment. Not surprising giving how beautiful the museum looked. And there were no visitors anyway. Except me, that is. Given the fact that fashion models were descending and mounting the staircase, I decided to take the lift to the upper floor and then try to find my way downwards.
Upstairs, I entered a beautiful, bright, curved space. Yes, the architecture was indeed beautiful. The curved wall along the perimeter of two big rooms was covered by a more or less constant line of paintings – this was the Kang Seok Ho exhibition. The space made any work look nice, but it also devoured any artwork placed inside of it – it was not a neutral space. Especially when the walls were simply used for hanging one work next to the other. This created a slightly monotonous rhythm. To some extent, this did resonate with the paintings, as they seemed to come in series and also focused on serial motives. The main theme of the artist was the depiction of gestures of hands, crotches, butts and chests. All seemed to be copied from photograph cut-outs, and some (or maybe all) of the hand gestures at least seemed to belong to politicians or pop stars. I was able to relate to the artist’s interest in the seemingly unimportant details hidden in the movement of hands, or hips. This is a subtle topic that could bring out some new points of view and impressions of these ‘hidden gestures’.
From there on, I tried to venture downstairs to see the second show advertised, but I realized that even from this direction, my access is blocked by the fashion shooting crew occupying the stairs and lobby. I decided to document this with a photograph. Mr. Fashion Photographer did not seem to like this photographic competition around, alerted someone and soon after that a museum staff appeared out of nowhere and asked me not to take photos of them.
I should wait for ten minutes, and then I could see the ground floor too, he said. I sat down in the lobby coffee shop, flicked through the books on display (If it’s not clear yet – Mimesis is a publishing company.) After twenty minutes, I still saw bright flashes coming from behind the corner, and I gave up. Same as I came in, I walked out through the deserted coffee shop. The most memorable moment was to see the gardener, standing in the same place as when I walked in 40 minutes ago, still watering the flowers.
The architecture was beautiful, so much that it more or less stole the show from the artworks. I have a feeling that this museum suffers from the typical Asian museum issue that I have come across so often in China before: A big nice building is built, but then the activity stops. The sensible yet basic hanging hinted at the fact that the curator tried to do his/her best, under a director that believes that if one builds a beautiful house for art, the art will come by itself, for free, and the audience too, at its own will. As it was, Mimesis Museum felt most of all like a very beautiful, well designed and slightly oversized entrance lobby for the surely big and important publishing company whose owner commissioned it.