The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) will host an international symposium titled “What Should Museums Aim For: Art, Museums, and Publicness” on December 18 at the MMCA’s Multipurpose Hall in Seoul. This symposium will bring together six experts from Korea and abroad to delve deeply into the concept of publicness, a core value of art and museums.
The event will be structured into three sessions, each focusing on a different aspect of publicness in the context of art and museums.
The first session, “The Concept of Publicness,” will feature Kim Young Min, professor of Political Science and International Relations at Seoul National University, who will examine traditional forms of publicness such as “exhibitionistic” and “rational” publicness. He will propose a new concept called “artistic publicness” as a replacement. Following him, Sim Bo Seon, a professor at Yonsei University’s Graduate School of Communication, will explore the potential for museums to function as arenas for dialogue and debate.
The second session, “Publicness as a Principle of Practice,” will highlight global perspectives. Malaysian curator Nur Hanim Khairuddin will discuss public art projects she has curated in Southeast Asia, emphasizing the intersection of art and political spaces. Meanwhile, Cho Seon Ryeong, professor of Art, Culture, and Visual Studies at Pusan National University, will examine the potential of exhibitions to create temporary communities, proposing museums as platforms for such engagement.
The third and final session, “Expanding Publicness: Its Place in the Future,” will tackle forward-looking strategies. Rodney Harrison, professor of Heritage Studies at University College London (UCL), will argue that museums must address global challenges such as climate change, advocating for an ecological publicness approach. Choi Chun Woong, professor of Architecture at Seoul National University, will reflect on the architectural evolution of museums and propose future designs that embody publicness.
Discussions from the symposium will be compiled and published in a research volume titled “What Should Museums Aim For: Art, Museums, and Publicness.”
Attendance is free, and reservations can be made starting December 10 through the MMCA’s official website on a first-come, first-served basis for up to 250 participants.
Since 2018, the MMCA has been advancing discourse on contemporary art and museums through its MMCA Research Project series. Previous symposiums have tackled themes such as “What Should Museums Research?” (2018), “What Should Museums Collect?” (2018), “What Moves Museums?” (2019), and “What Should Museums Connect?” (2021).
By hosting this symposium, the MMCA continues to solidify its role as a leader in museum studies and contemporary art discourse, fostering deeper connections between museums and the public they serve.
Sayart / Maria Kim, sayart2022@gmail.com
