ART-PRESENTATION: Moon Kyungwon & Jeon Joonho-News From Nowhere

The Korean artists Moon Kyungwon and Jeon Joonho make work that addresses elemental questions concerning contemporary civilization in light of political, socioeconomic, and ecological changes. The artists collaborate with creators in the architecture, fashion, design and film worlds to investigate the role of the artist.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Tate Archive

“News from Nowhere” is the first Museum exhibition in the UK for the artist duo Moon Kyungwon and Jeon Joonho. Their new film, “Anomaly Strolls” (2018), commissioned for the Tate Liverpool, responds to Liverpool, and is shown alongside the video work, “El Fin del Mundo” (2012). Both films form part of the ongoing project “News from Nowhere” which was initiated in 2009, and takes its name and inspiration from the satirical 1890 novel by designer, writer, and socialist activist, William Morris (1834–1896). Combining socialism and science fiction, Morris’s novel used his vision of a utopian 21^st Century London as a way to comment on the 19^th Century England in which he lived. Moon and Jeon present their vision of the world 100 years from now to similarly reflect on today’s society and ask what is the social function and role of art in the contemporary world, As they have said: “Sci-fi is always the fable of the present. By employing a way to look at the future instead of the present, we wanted to address current issues, especially in relation to what art is and what art could be”. Filmed in deserted alleyways and pubs across the city, “Anomaly Strolls” reflects on the experience of being human today. “El Fin del Mundo” is a 13-minute science fiction film that explores the role of art in a changing world, through scenes of a post-apocalyptic future. In the late 21^st Century, following a catastrophe on earth, most of the world is under water, and majority of humans have died. Survivors now live in a dangerous environment. In this world of chaos, where all order, values, national governments and social systems have collapsed, a small number of corporations maintain a new system of human society. The companies gathered the survivors together, gave them “citizenship”, and provided them with comfortable lives and the benefits of civilisation. Using survivors’ labour, the corporations now compete with one another in order to acquire hegemonic control of the new world. Survivors complete dangerous tasks and go through a strict screening process before they finally attain citizenship from one of the companies. This film is divided into 2 separate screens: one for the man and the other for the woman. The film simultaneously depicts how the male character continues to work on his art even through the catastrophe and how the female character, a descendant of the survivors, becomes aware of the aesthetic senses after the catastrophe. The woman is sent by Tempus, one of the remaining companies, to a remote archive and happens upon the place where the man worked long ago, coming into contact with traces of the man that transcend time and space. “Anomaly Strolls” is a multi-screen work featuring the same male protagonist as “El Fin del Mundo”. He has travelled on a journey through space and time, eventually arriving in Liverpool. Here he explores abandoned buildings, deserted alleys and pubs. Unnoticed by others around him, the film reflects on human existence and how we can be anonymous in our own time. Remaining committed to the power of art, he picks up discarded items, putting them in a shopping trolley, as he did in “El Fin del Mundo” to make a new work. Hinting at an apocalypse yet to happen, the new commission highlights that the future is dependent on the present and therefore prone to flux and instability. Both works are presented in an installation designed by the artists using salvaged materials including discarded and recycled metal.

Info: Curator: Tamar Hemmes, Tate Liverpool, Royal Albert Dock Liverpool, Liverpool, Duration: 23/11/18-17/3/19, Days & Hours: Daily 10:00-17:00, www.tate.org.uk