The artist duo Moon Kyung-won and Jeon Joon-ho were selected as the winner of the MMCA Hyundai Motor Series 2021.

The two artists have explored the role of art in the rapidly changing world which faces a variety of issues such as contradictory capitalism, historic tragedies and climate change that are threatening humanity.

Their representative projects include “News From Nowhere” which the two artists have been working on together since 2012, inspired by the eponymous utopian novel written by William Morris (1834-1896), leader of the arts and crafts movement in the late 19th-century England.

The project, “News From Nowhere,” has evolved over the years with the duo’s experiments presented in a variety of art forms -- installation, media, multi-disciplinary research and workshop and publication. The project premiered at Kassel Documenta 13 in 2012 and won the MMCA Korea Artist Prize the same year. It was shown at Sullivan Galleries, School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2013; Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich, Switzerland, in 2015; and at their solo show in Tate Liverpool, England, in 2018.

The MMCA Hyundai Motor Series, sponsored by Hyundai Motor, aims to introduce promising artists in Korea, supporting them in opening holding an exhibition at MMCA. Moon and Jeon are the eighth artists chosen for the MMCA Hyundai Motor Series. 

The artist duo’s exhibition will be held at MMCA Seoul in September with a theme of “News From Nowhere: Freedom Village” which will feature a variety of art shedding light on Daeseong-dong, which is also known as “Freedom Village,” located in the South Korean side in the Demilitarized Zone.

Former winners of the MMCA Hyundai Motor Series include internationally acclaimed artists such as Park Chan-kyong, Lee Bul, Ahn Kyu-chul, Kim Soo-ja, Im Heung-soon and Yang Hae-gue.

By Park Yuna (yunapark@heraldcorp.com)