- This exhibition is aimed at giving art lovers in Seoul a brief introduction to modern Asian art that is now rising to prominence in the global art market.
- The exhibition will be held in close cooperation between the Seoul Museum of Art and the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, the Today Art Museum in Beijing and the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art in Istanbul.
- The exhibition offers a rare overview of the latest trends and related issues in Asian contemporary art via the art museum curators from the four Asian cities.

1. Overview of the Event

■ ■ Seoul Museum of Art presents City net Asia 2009, the fourth event to focus on Asian contemporary art, from September 30 to November 22. The event offers art lovers in Seoul with an overview of the latest trends in Asian art, which is fast rising to prominence in the international art market, and also explores the future and potential of said art. Launched as a biennial event of the Asian modern art project, the exhibition aims to introduce Asian contemporary art to the international art world, which has been dominated by the West, and to promote Asian art to the rest of the world. There have recently been a lot of exhibitions on Asian modern art led by young artists, guiding general art lovers from across the world towards the social reality and cultural identity of Asia.

The exhibition, City_net Asia, held at the Seoul Museum of Art, presents work by some of Asia’s better known artists. These pieces reflect various socio-cultural issues in modern day Asia and were selected by the curators of some of the major art museums of the major Asian cities. The works were chosen by the curators, in association with the contemporary artists, defined by their devotion to the identity of the Asian region to which they belong. The works are regarded as great examples that highlight the general trends in Asian contemporary art, and the presentation techniques and participating cities ensure that this event will remain very influential for some time to come.

The exhibition, City_net Asia 2009, will be participated in by the four art museums of the four major cities in Asia: the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, the Today Art Museum in Beijing, the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art in Istanbul and the Seoul Museum of Art in Seoul. It is expected that this exhibition will identify the future of Asian art via the works of young artists, based in the four cities mentioned above, as they grapple with the identity of their city of residence. As for the Seoul Museum of Art, the event will help the museum grow into a major art institution in the region and play a central role in the development of Asian contemporary art.

Natsumi Araki, the curator of the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, analyzes the characteristics of contemporary art in Tokyo in Off the Center – Quiet Shift in Contemporary Art in Tokyo and also reflects on the new spirit of Tokyo’s handicraft seen through the works of a group of young Japanese artists interested in combining the elements of elaborate handicraft with various materials, such as wood, textile and plastics under the title. Araki brought for the Seoul exhibition a collection of about 20 works by nine young artists, who were born between 1960 and 1980, consisting of paintings, animations, mural paintings and large installations.

Li Xiaoqian, from the Today Art Museum in Beijing, China, focuses on the theme of Sedimentation and introduces the movement of the artists interested in the changes brought to Chinese society since it rapid industrialization. The title, Sedimentation, refers to the process whereby the interrelationship between atoms and the powers around them form matter that is divisible by its multiple layers. He points out that it is the resultant process and situation that arises from such a division that we need to pay attention to in Chinese contemporary art. His exhibition guides viewers through the latest works of 10 Chinese contemporary artists, whose main concern is not to directly comment on specific social issues. This does not mean, however, that the artists close their eyes and ears to the social issues around them because the fact is that they react more actively, if in a more composed manner, to the current social situation they find themselves a part of.

Levent Calikoglu, the head curator of the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art, guides viewers through a new art map linking Turkey’s dynamic contemporary art in the The New Continent: Istanbul exhibition. In other words, this exhibition provides a brief introduction of the contemporary art in Istanbul, focusing on how the works of Turkish contemporary art are related with music, film, politics and Turkish society and how they respond to each other. In the exhibition, viewers will be introduced to the videos and paintings of nine contemporary Turkish artists interested in linking Turkey’s urban reality with contemporary art in a novel manner.

The title of the event’s last section, Double Ax, refers to a paradoxical, double-edged situation in which an ax with double blades can become a threat either to me or to another according to the direction in which it is swung. The Korean contemporary art collected in this section display a sense of ambiguity; they exist on the boundary between two faces. The works feature a light form full of wit, in terms of theme and matter, while dealing with the important political and cultural issues facing Korean modern society. The exhibition consists of some 20 pieces by 10 artists based in Seoul.

The goal of the events organized by the curators is to provide Korean art lovers with a brief overview of the identity of four major Asian cities and the trends of contemporary art in Asia. The events of The City net Asia that have been held so far having gained a growing reputation and popularity among curators and artists across Asia. Indeed, Asian contemporary art continues to improve, in terms of quality and quantity, in tandem with the growing network of the museums in Asian cities.