The art collection of Mudam Luxembourg, a contemporary art museum in Luxembourg, is on display in Seoul as part of an exchange exhibition with ArtSonje Center.

Mudam Luxembourg, founded in 2006 in Luxembourg City, attracted a record number of visitors in the first year of opening with its extensive collections of contemporary artists such as Andy Warhol, Bruce Nauman and Julian Schnabel.

ArtSonje Center is showcasing 30 works by 19 artists whose works reflect on various aspects of contemporary life and art, and engage with the theme of utopia. In exchange, Mudam will receive Korean sculptor Lee Bul’s new works, shown to the Korean public last September. 

“The featured works deal with various strata among formulations of ideal life, portraits of the current society and representations of our sometimes desperate reality,” said a curator of the ArtSonje Center.

The title of Sylvie Bocher’s eight-minute video clip “A More Perfect Day” is adapted for the title of the exhibition. The short video clip features a singer who sings about U.S. President Barack Obama’s autobiographical story and his famous speeches, which, in turn, ask viewers what it takes to make a better world.

Japanese journalist and artist Kyoichi Tsuzuki’s “Happy Victims” exposes the private dressing rooms of Japanese people, filled with their collections of designer clothes and accessories ― a consumer utopia the artist intends to create.

Michael Ashkin’s installation piece made of cardboard boxes is an aerial view of a virtual city structure. The small building structures and streets create an apocalyptic ambience or a civilization. The artist came up with 20 titles to describe the artwork. The 20 sentences show the artist’s exploration of different images and ideas in the making of the artwork, including “where each new morning brings only terror of exposure” or “where each man’s solitude is another man’s due.”

Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison, a husband and wife photography duo, express their dystopian view in a photograph featuring a man in a suit attempting to “navigate” above the clouds.

On the first floor of the art center, a television plays “The Jungle Book Project,” an adaptation of the 1967 Disney animated classic.

The exhibition runs through June 23 at ArtSonje Center in Jongno, Seoul.

For more information, call (02) 733-8945.

By Lee Woo-young  (wylee@heraldcorp.com)