Weekly News Roundup: August 9, 2024
By The Editors
Installation view of YAYOI KUSAMA’s Infinite Accumulation at Liverpool Street Station, 2024. Photo by Thierry Bal. Courtesy the artist, Ota Fine Arts, Singapore and Victoria Miro, London.
London Welcomes New Public Artwork
Yayoi Kusama’s new sculpture Infinite Accumulation (2024) has been unveiled at London’s Liverpool Street rail station, marking the first permanent public installation in the UK by the 95-year-old Japanese artist. Around 10 meters tall and 98 meters long, Infinite Accumulation is her largest public sculpture to date. It features gleaming arches adorned with silver mirror balls, reminiscent of her other famous installation, Narcissus Garden (1996). Kusama stated that the piece represents the multicultural dynamism of London: “The spheres symbolize unique personalities while the supporting curvilinear lines allow us to imagine an underpinning social structure.” With funding from the property development company British Land and the City of London Corporation, as well as partial support from the London-based gallery Victoria Miro, Infinite Accumulation was commissioned in 2017 by the Crossrail Art Foundation for its public art program. It is the final artwork in the program and seeks to rejuvenate areas inside and around the Elizabeth railway line.
Portrait of SERRA YENTURK. Courtesy Saha Association, Istanbul.
Turkey’s Saha Appoints New Director
The nonprofit Turkish art organization Saha has appointed Serra Yentürk as its third director. Founded in 2011, Saha aims to support artists, curators, and writers working in visual arts from Turkey, as well as to enhance their networks with international art institutions. Yentürk had been serving as interim director since the departure of her predecessor, Çelenk Bafra, in February. Prior to this role, Yentürk served as the studio coordinator of Saha between 2022 and 2024, managing collaborations with international residency programs abroad. Earlier, in 2021, she was the editor of Borusan Contemporary, while from 2016 to 2020 she worked as an independent curator and editor in Paris. Saha’s founding chairwoman Füsun Eczacıbaşı stated that she “firmly believe[s] that Serra will be joining forces with the art community and colleagues in promoting projects to reimagine contemporary art and open doors to new questions in these times when we continuously rethink our days and our future.”
Installation view of HYUNGSEOB SHIN’s Shadow Memory, 2022. Courtesy Jeju Museum of Contemporary Art.
The 4th Jeju Biennale Confirms Dates
The 4th Jeju Biennale, “The Drift of Apagi: The Way of Water, Wind, and Stars,” has confirmed that it will take place from November 26, 2024, to February 16, 2025, in various venues across the island. This year’s Jeju Biennale will feature 39 artists and groups from 14 countries, including Jeju-born artist Koh Gil-cheon, installation artist Boo Jihyun, Seoul-based artist Hyungseob Shin, Malaysian collective Pangrok Sulap, Singaporean documentary photographer Huiying Ore, Thai media artist Wuttin Chansataboot, Taipei-based collective lololol, and New York-based artist Tooraj Khamenehzadeh, among others. “Through the exhibition’s theme, ‘Drifting,’ we want to examine how Jeju’s identity is intertwined with the international context and the changing flow of civilization,” the biennale’s director Lee Jong Hoo stated. “We will strive to make . . . a biennale that resonates with everyone by touching on everyday life, rather than the difficult language of art criticism.”
Installation view of Museo Aero Solar presented in Biennale Architettura 2021, Venice. Courtesy Studio Tomas Saraceno.
Leeum Museum of Art to Launch Eco-Friendly Programs
The Leeum Museum of Art announced that it will host the event series “Aerocene Seoul” as part of its public program “Idea Museum,” which explores the diverse ways that ecological issues can be integrated into institutional art practices. In collaboration with the nonprofit organization Aerocene Foundation and its founder, Argentinean contemporary artist Tomás Saraceno, “Aerocene” gathers diverse artists, activists, geographers, philosophers, speculative scientists, and technologists from around the world for collective performances toward environmental justice. The Leeum Museum will also present a series of events and activities, such as “Museo Aero Solar,” a campaign and workshop to create a museum out of reused plastic bags that is solar-powered; “Aerocene Backpack Workshop,” which will feature a portable flight-kit enclosing an aerosolar sculpture (one that uses solar power to float); as well as discursive programs. “Aerocene Seoul” is scheduled to run from June 25 until September 29.
KAWITA VATANAJYANKUR and PAT PATARANUTAPORN, The Machine Ghost in the Human Shell (from Cyber Labour series), 2024, performative hologram projections with AI, dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist, Nova Contemporary, Bangkok, and Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art.
Artists Announced for The 11th Asia Pacific Triennial
On August 7, the Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art announced the 70 artists, collectives, and projects that will participate in its 11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT 11). Over 30 countries will be featured this year, including artists and artworks from Saudi Arabia, Timor-Leste, and Uzbekistan for the first time. The triennial will gather more than 500 artworks alongside new commissions by Brisbane-based artist Jasmine Togo-Brisby, Thai performance artist Kawita Vatanajyankur, Vietnamese artist Trương Công Tùng, the Paemanu Contemporary Art Collective from New Zealand, the ’Aunofo Havea Funaki and the Lepamahanga Women’s Group from Vava’u, Tonga, Hawaiian featherwork artist Mele Kahalepuna Chun, and Dharawal Country-based artist Mai Nguyễn-Long. APT 11 is curated by a specialist team, led by curatorial manager of Asian and Pacific art, Tarun Nagesh and is set to open on November 30, 2024, and run until April 27, 2025.
Installation view of "For All That Breathes on Earth," 2024, at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul. Courtesy the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art.
MMCA Korea Wins Red Dot Design Award
The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) in Seoul announced that it has won the 2024 Red Dot Design’s “Best of the Best” prize in the Brand and Communication category. The MMCA was awarded for the exhibition “For All That Breathes on Earth,” a retrospective on the life and work of Jung Youngsun, Korea’s first licensed female landscape architect. On display until September 22, the exhibition brings together more than 500 archival materials, including pastel, pencil, and watercolor drawings, blueprints, design schemes, models, and photographs and videos from the architect’s extensive projects. The Red Dot Design Award is an annual international design award founded in 1955, and is considered one of the top three honors in the field. The Red Dot Design Award ceremony is slated for November 1 and will take place in Berlin.
