Seoul, September 3, 2024 — The “Connecting Bodies: Asian Women Artists” exhibition at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) in Seoul explores the contemporary meaning of post-1960s Asian women's art through the lens of corporeality. Featuring over 130 works from 11 Asian countries, the exhibition sheds light on the role of the body in expressing and challenging societal norms, ideologies, and cultural values.
The exhibition is divided into six sections, each addressing how Asian women artists have used the body to explore identity, gender, and social roles in their art. It provides an opportunity for visitors to engage with diverse perspectives on the body and its cultural significance, as expressed through different media.
The first section, “Choreograph Life”, focuses on the lived experiences inscribed on the body. Through works depicting themes like colonialism, war, and migration, artists reflect on the historical and personal memories etched into the body. This section highlights the body not just as a site of oppression, but also as a medium for fostering community and solidarity.
The second section, “Flexible Territories of Sexuality”, showcases works that challenge societal taboos around sex, death, and pleasure. The artists in this section deconstruct the rigid binary of male and female, opening up possibilities for more fluid and diverse expressions of sexual identity.
In the third section, “Bodies·God(desse)s·Cosmology”, artists draw on Asian mythologies to explore the body as a microcosm of the universe. The images of goddesses in these works challenge colonial and patriarchal conceptions of femininity, emphasizing women’s creativity and power.
The fourth section, “Street Performances”, delves into the role of public space in performance art. From the 1960s to the 2000s, Asian women artists used urban streets as stages to challenge norms and address issues such as gender, migration, and the environment through their performances.
“Repeating Gestures”, the fifth section, focuses on the power of repetition in performance art. By repeating ordinary actions, these artists challenge social oppression and explore themes of migration, identity, and communication, while also questioning the relationship between the body, power, and language.
The final section, “Bodies as Becoming‒Connecting Bodies”, explores the idea of the body as a fluid, ever-changing entity. Artists challenge the binary divisions of mind and body, human and nature, male and female, imagining new ways of being through interconnectedness and transformation.
This exhibition offers a profound reflection on how Asian women artists have used the body to engage with and critique their time's social and political issues. Moving beyond traditional notions of the body challenges the binary thinking that still dominates contemporary society and opens up new possibilities for understanding identity.
Sayart / Nao Yim, yimnao@naver.com
