The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea has launched a project with art institutes in Asia to promote art globally, such as online virtual reality programs and a Korean art website in English, so audiences can enjoy them from the comfort of their own homes during the pandemic lockdown.

A subscription-based online streaming service, “Watch and Chill,” was jointly launched with the M+ West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong, MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum in Thailand, and Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD) in the Philippines.

The project, initiated by MMCA, aims to counteract the pandemic impact on the art scene and to explore a new approach of sharing art globally. Subscribers to the online platform can access a collection of 22 video works from the four museums. “Watch and Chill” will continue through February 2022 and expand to Europe in 2022 and North and South America in 2023, according to MMCA. 

A showcase exhibition “Watch and Chill: Streaming Art to Your Home” will take place at MMCA Seoul Oct. 24, which will bring visitors on a tour to M+, MCAD, and MAIIAM.

MMCA has also launched their “MMCA VR” service in English after the museum’s curatorial exhibitions on its YouTube channel became popular. It features a three-minute English narration of VR videos with Rotoscoping technology, a combination of live-action images and animation developed by the New Media art group VERS.

The first piece introduced by “MMCA VR” is “Moonlight Crown_Silla Gold Crown” by Yee Sook-yung, a contemporary artist well known for the “Translated Vases” series, presented on MMCA’s YouTube channel. The next artwork will be presented in November, according to the museum.

Early next year, the museum plans to launch a high-quality English language website and the English edition of a brochure, “Korean Art 1900–2020,” to introduce Korean modern and contemporary art globally. The website is tentatively named as “A Korean art website.” The website will consist of major exhibition archives from the 1900s.

“Korean Art 1900-2020” is a survey of 120 years of Korean art that includes five topics -- “From Calligraphy to ‘Art,’” “Art in an Era of War and Division,” “Modernism in Korea: The Relationship between Tradition and Modernity,” “Democratization Movement and the Pluralization of Art,” and “Globalism and Contemporary Korean Art.” The English version of the brochure will be distributed to major art institutions overseas, and can also be purchased individually through the MMCA’s online shop.

By Park Yuna (yunapark@heraldcorp.com)