Art Class: Ólafur Elíasson Exhibit~ The Parliament of Possibilities
A couple of months ago I was really lucky to have a few friends stop by through Seoul for a few days. It just so happens we both enjoy art and so I was really enthusiastic to have this friend see the Leeum Museum of Art which is one of my favourite parts of Seoul. In search of much needed creative inspiration we headed to the Samsung owned gallery.
The Leeum Samsung Museum of Art is located in Hannam-dong, a wealthy and international neighbourhood just North of Gangnam. The area is filled with quaint cafes, stunning restaurants and international embassies. It is a beautiful yet very much underrated part of Seoul.
The gallery itself is split into two parts, Museum 1 and Museum 2. Museum one is mostly traditional pieces and national treasures. Museum 2 features artwork from prominent contemporary artists such as, Anish Kapoor, (who designed the signature metal sculpture featured outside by the entrance), Francis Bacon, Damien Hirst and Anthony Gormley to name a few. It also features works by famous Korean artists particularly ones who rose to fame in post war Korea during the 1960s.
The building is also worth noting, it's a very interesting space, each part was built by a different renown foreign architect. So if my memory serves me correct, Mario Botta designed Museum 1, Jean Nouvel designed Museum 2 and Rem Koolhaas designed the Child Education Centre. It's strikes me as quite fascinating the amount of foreign architecture ever- present in Seoul from the Incheon Tri-bowl to Dongdaemun Design Plaza, it seems foreign influenced buildings are the future here in South Korea.
Museum 2 is personally my preferred space when I usually go down to the museum but it just so happened there was an exhibition on when we got there.
Ólafur Elíasson: The Parliament of Possibilities is the current featured exhibition. It began on 28th September, 2016 and will be on until 26th February, 2017 Ólafur Elíasson is a Icelandic-Danish artist who is known for using lights, water and geometric patterns to play with the viewer's perception. I had to research a bit about the artist to feed my curiosity as I still don't know of many contemporary artists, particularly non-British ones.
Despite having gone into the exhibition with no prior knowledge of Elíasson's work I found it thoroughly enjoyable and very thought provoking. I enjoyed his use of refraction and inversions of common objects and shapes as well as his use of geometric shapes paired with traditional materials. A favourite piece for both my friend and I had to be the Rainbow Assembly. I certainly don't profess to be an art virtuoso but I can certainly appreciate his work. It's an incredibly engaging exhibition and the pictures I have uploaded don't begin to do it justice. I know I'll be recommending this exhibition to every art lover I know here!
