Savina Museum of Contemporary Art presents interactive, real-time ‘social networking arts’


A hideous looking robot came to life when the number posted on one of its arms was called on a phone. Various parts of the robot creaked and turned, and drops of reddish brown paint slid down a thin tube onto a feather swooshing across a white canvas laid in the center of the machine.

A colorful abstract painting was created only a few minutes later. When the caller says it is finished, it is finished. The competed works were exhibited on the walls surrounding the robot, or the artwork named “Mobile Drawing” by Choi Mun-seok.

The latest exhibition held at Savina Museum of Contemporary Art in Anguk-dong, central Seoul, could easily be mistaken for a showcase of whimsical new inventions. Small and big robots, lights flashing all around the space and awkward photos, paintings and installations filled the three-story building.

If beauty were the single, exclusive criteria for art, the show would doubtlessly be a failure. If one believes art should reflect today and give fresh inspiration, however, it would be a totally different story.

The exhibition, titled “Social Art,” introduces interactive artwork by nine young Korean artists who were motivated by the pervasiveness of social network services. Each artwork ponders on the influences of SNS or smartphones that seem to be reigning supreme.

Yang Jin-woo’s “Partition Wall for Doodles” features several chalkboards arranged in line, inundated with colorful scribbles and doodles that are reminiscent of the old walls of narrow alleys on which kids expressed their creativity. Among the ‘wall’ stands a same-sized screen which displays the most famous wall of today: the Facebook wall.

Kim Hyun-joo’s “TweetBot v.1.0” is a six-legged robot that calls to mind a spider. The robot, which supposedly is able to read people’s minds, senses a viewer standing in front of it, reads its feelings and posts on the artist’s twitter how the onlooker is feeling. 

Amid the novel creations, Kim Jin’s “Thousand and One Nights Project” leads viewers to rediscover the uniqueness of the human mind and even cherish the analog way of thinking.

Kim posted a passage from Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges’ book “The Translators of The Thousand and One Nights” on his Facebook and asked his friends to visualize their thoughts on it. The results, the artwork of 25 of his friends who are mostly artists, are showcased at the exhibition. The artist was very surprised at the result, said Kang Jae-hyun, curator of the exhibition.

“He said that the result was very unexpected. His friends drew something they had always wanted to draw,” Kang said. “He said that he realized anew how every single being sees, feels and understands the same issue in different ways.”

Such a high-tech exhibition is not a surprise at Savina as the museum has always been eager to incorporate cutting-edge technology into its exhibitions. It was one of the first to open a 3-D exhibition space online and provide QR codes through which users can get details about the exhibits.

“Social Art” runs through April 27 at Savina Museum of Contemporary Art in Anguk-dong, central Seoul. For more information, call (02) 736-4371 or visit www.savinamuseum.com.

By Park Min-young  (claire@heraldcorp.com)