Seoul's city-run museum to hold exhibition in Abu Dhabi in May

Seoul Museum of Art Director Choi Eun-ju has been a trailblazer as a curator and museum director. As soon as she came into office at the museum run by the city of Seoul two years ago, she thought of where the 36-year-old museum was in the history of Korean contemporary art.
“As a director, you have to set a direction for the museum," Choi told The Korea Herald on Monday at Seoul Museum of Art.
“Let’s say Seoul Museum of Art, there should be something that only SeMA can show to people at home and abroad. You have to have an insight for it and listen to the curators to make it happen.”
Last year, SeMA showcased the museum's permanent collection under the theme of “SeMA Omnibus,” aggregating four museums in the city museum system -- the main Seosomun venue, Buk-Seoul Museum of Art, Nam-Seoul Museum of Art and the SeMA Art Archives. The exhibition brought together 350 works, including 140 pieces from SeMA’s collection, new commissions, archival materials and loaned works.
This year, the exhibition will be shown at “Layered Medium: We Are in Open Circuits” in May at Manarat AI Saadiyat in Abu Dhabi of the United Arab Emirates, which will mark the largest Korean contemporary art exhibition in the Gulf Cooperation Council region, according to the museum.
“The exhibition is – in fact – shows the core identity of SeMA,” Choi said. “The museum walked through the history of Korean contemporary art since the 1990s and worked with many contemporary artists who are leading the Korean art scene today.”

Choi said the museum owns some 6,200 works, most of which are contemporary art. Works by Korean women artists and works donated by collectors or artists' families make up a large portion of the museum's collection.
“After going through the collection here, we concluded that Korean contemporary art since the 1990s is a constant evolution of the medium – the artists focused on paintings, then installation and moved on to media art. Now they are expanding to artificial intelligence," she said.
The 61-year-old director turned her eyes beyond Seoul in looking to make a global breakthrough in introducing Korean contemporary art with the museum's collection. Thinking where she can break through globally to introduce contemporary Korean art, the museum built a rapport with art institutions with a focus on the Middle East last year and fostered exchanges with organizations in Eastern and Northern Europe.
“I thought we have to choose an unexplored path, and we figured that the museum has less interaction with the art scene in those regions,” she said.
In January last year, Choi went to the United Arab Emirates to explore the art scene there, which led to the upcoming exhibition in Abu Dhabi. The exhibition will be larger in scale with more artists than the one shown in Seoul last year, Choi said.
“Many exhibitions are 'gone' after just one showing, which is a shame. I think a museum has to have a show worthy of touring globally,” she said.
Choi is forming a task force to create solidarity among the museum's eight branches as the museum system is to expand with the opening of two additional museums – Photography Seoul Museum of Art and Seo-Seoul Museum of Art.
“What I have emphasized is that all the branch museums need to have some connection and hold a loose solidarity to create synergy,” she said.