GALLERY 5

Gallery 5 is the architectural model of gallery 5 in the MMCA Seoul (where the exhibition Gathering is presented), representing the exhibition hall in 1/25 size. Along with the structural model, there are the video of the building of the MMCA Seoul and the pattern of the Big Dipper assembled from the traditional Korean musical instrument jing. The architectural model demonstrates the ways in which the exhibition Gathering was planned to the audiences.

 

Gallery 5 aims to articulate the fact that this exhibition is not an architecturally complete program, but a project and work of the imagination. It encourages the audiences to survey the entirety of the exhibition spaces, and thus, to reflect on the act of viewing the exhibition from the starting point, again.

The model is related to the history of the exhibition hall itself. Before building the MMCA Seoul, when the site was formerly used as the Defense Security Command, rumor has it that no one knew the true depth of the building’s underground. This calls to mind the confinement, interrogation and torture of political criminals, which took place in the Defense Security Command. The artist created the staircase and used it as a medium that links the building’s ground level to the underground. By extending the staircase to the floor of the exhibition hall, the staircase also links the symbol (the model) to the reality (the gallery floor). (MMCA)