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MMK Museum fur Moderne Kunst Frankfurt am Main opens Jewyo Rhii. Walls to Talk to

MMK Museum fur Moderne Kunst Frankfurt am Main presents Jewyo Rhii. Walls to Talk to an exhibition on view 5 JULY – 1 SEPTEMBER 2013. Born in Korea, the artist has displaced herself many times in the last ten years. Her work mirrors the influences of the constant movement between Asia, America and Europe as well as her poetic and humorous observations of human conditions and its ability to make itself at home in surroundings.

Jewyo Rhii, Fence (Itaewon), 2010-2011 und Fence (Frankfurt am Main), 2013. Installationsansicht MMK Frankfurt, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Ursula Walbröl, Düsseldorf, Foto: Axel Schneider
Jewyo Rhii, Fence (Itaewon), 2010-2011 und Fence (Frankfurt am Main), 2013. Installationsansicht MMK Frankfurt, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Ursula Walbröl, Düsseldorf, Foto: Axel Schneider

Much of Jewyo Rhii’s art is sculptural in character, but her creativity also manifests itself in drawings, videos and interventions in the private and public realm. She responds to her surroundings and executes works that inquire into the vulnerability of human existence. Within the framework of a residency lasting several weeks, Rhii is developing a large-scale installation at the MMK Zollamt uniting works from all phases of her artistic career.

Her project “Night Studio” will form the core of the exhibition. Executed in Seoul in 2009–11, it dissolves the boundaries between private life and the public realm, between artwork and object of everyday use, between living space and exhibition gallery. Four times within the aforementioned period, she opened her home to visitors and invited them to immerse themselves in her artistic and personal world.

For the exhibition at the MMK Zollamt, Rhii is reconstructing parts of her Seoul apartment, thus making the experience and memory of that place physically experienceable. The work will encompass, among other things, the Moving Floor, on which the visitors can walk, cooling systems consisting of melting blocks of ice, a home cinema driven by household ventilators, and a series of hand-crafted typewriters which can only generate certain texts or words. Object-like narration machines of various sizes and mechanical designs, these devices are operated by the artist with the full use of her physical strength to tell stories in a physically perceivable manner. Jewyo Rhii possesses a great affinity to the narrative and the book – the medium she used for artistic expression in the first several years of her career. Texts and type faces are encountered throughout her oeuvre and will also play a leading role in the Frankfurt exhibition “Walls To Talk To”.

Rhii studied in Seoul, Pennsylvania and London. In 2010 she was awarded the internationally renowned Yanghyun Prize.

The exhibition is being realized in cooperation with the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven and the Artsonje Center, Seoul. www.mmk-frankfurt.de