Seoul Museum of Art's 'Omnibus' project turns four exhibitions into one across the city

The Seoul Museum of Art’s (SeMA) latest exhibition won't be held in just one venue but will be spread across multiple branches in the capital city.

″Make Your Truth Beautiful″ by Lee Won-woo, on view at the ″At the End of the World Split Endlessly” exhibition at the Seoul Museum of Art's Seosomun main branch in central Seoul [SEOUL MUSEUM OF ART]

The Seoul Museum of Art’s (SeMA) latest exhibition won't be held in just one venue but will be spread across multiple branches in the capital city.

The municipal museum, which has seven branches in total, is set to present 140 pieces at the Seosomun main branch in Jung District, central Seoul, as well as the Buk-Seoul Museum of Art (Buk-SeMA), Nam-Seoul Museum of Art (Nam-SeMA) and the Art Archives, Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA AA). All 140 pieces are owned by the museum.

Installation view of ″At the End of the World Split Endlessly” exhibition at the Seoul Museum of Art's Seosomun main branch in central Seoul [SEOUL MUSEUM OF ART]

SeMA's collection houses 6,158 works and over 60 percent are by contemporary artists. SeMA curator Yeo Kyung-hwan said the collection is “meaningful in understanding the essence of Korean contemporary art,” during a press conference at the museum on Wednesday.

Over 30 percent of SeMA’s collection is made up of works by major Korean female artists.

Titled “SeMA Omnibus,” the project brings four exhibitions together in an attempt to “connect” the SeMA identity, a keyword that the museum emphasized as part of its agenda earlier this year. The exhibitions will also feature new commissioned works, borrowed works and archival documents, ultimately displaying some 350 pieces.

The artworks allude to topics like capitalism, media, social minorities and coexistence, in an attempt to stress that relationships are no longer “linear,” but now diverge in countless ways.

″Figure #1″ by Lee Jee-yang on view at the ″I Want to Love Us″ exhibition at Buk-Seoul Museum of Art in northern Seoul [SEOUL MUSEUM OF ART]

The main branch’s “At the End of the World Split Endlessly” show, which began Thursday and runs until Nov. 17, deals especially with the relationship between the artist and artwork in a multimedia age, and how various mediums, including AI and virtual reality, have shaped the ways humans function in society.

Participating artists include Kwon Byung-jun, Kwon Jin Kyu, Haegue Yang, Lee Bul and Lee Kun-yong.

The exhibition also introduces five emerging artists, Goo Gi-jeong, Jun Hye-joo, Han Ji-hyoung, Hwang Sun-jeong and Lee Young-joo, who explore the relationships between human and nonhuman entities, like the plants in Goo’s multichannel video installation, “Macromachine Plant Incubator.”

Buk-SeMA’s “I Want to Love Us” exhibition, which started Thursday and runs until Nov. 3, sheds light on the stories of social minorities and offers ideas on how these create a mutual community. Seventy-four artworks on feminism, disability and queer identity will be on view.

Installation view of the “Planet Nine″ exhibition at the Nam-Seoul Museum of Art in southern Seoul [SEOUL MUSEUM OF ART]

Nam-SeMA’s “Planet Nine,” which continues through Oct. 27, is another exhibition that dives into the theme of nonhuman entities. It makes room for the possibility of exploring uncharted territory, or the “ninth planet,” in the universe. The concept is used as a metaphor and urges visitors to depart from the anthropocentric perspectives present in modern age.

The focus of “SeMA Omnibus” heavily leans toward nonhuman relationships, as it’s a topic that the museum hasn’t studied in depth before, SeMA curator Park Ji-su said.

Finally, SeMA AA’s “Fantasia of the Archives,” starting on Aug. 29 and ending on Feb. 2 next year, showcases 180 items spanning across the videos, pictures, sculptures and documents of contemporary artists.

All exhibitions are free.

BY SHIN MIN-HEE [shin.minhee@joongang.co.kr]