06.11.2022 Press release

Hyundai Motor and MMCA Present ‘PROJECT HASHTAG 2022’ Exploring the Expanded Real and Virtual

  • ‘PROJECT HASHTAG 2022’ to run at National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea through April 9, 2023
  • The annual program promotes interdisciplinary collaborations among next-generation creators while providing a platform for experimental discussion
  • This year’s two finalist teams, ‘Lost Air’ and ‘Crypton,’ examine today’s political and socio-cultural issues while exploring the underground music scene as well as a virtual ecosystem 

Press material

Hyundai Motor Company and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA) announced the opening of the ‘PROJECT HASHTAG 2022’ exhibition at MMCA Seoul. The exhibition will run from today through April 9, 2023.

Launched in 2019 and now in its third annual iteration of a five-year partnership, PROJECT HASHTAG promotes interdisciplinary collaborations between next-generation artists, writers, producers and researchers from diverse fields while providing a platform for exhibition and discussion.

Through our partnership with the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, we hope to provide a platform for experimentation and collaboration for emerging creators and consistently contribute to the development of the domestic culture and art scene. ‘PROJECT HASHTAG 2022’ will archive the present and offer a new perspective on the future based on an extended worldview that transcends the real and the virtual.

DooEun Choi Vice President of Artlab at Hyundai Motor Company

Taking its name from the symbol widely used on social media platforms to facilitate the search and organization of user-generated content, PROJECT HASHTAG embraces the open spirit of the hashtag(#) that generates an infinite number of unpredictable contexts. Moreover, this program centers on the value of expandability, which transcends the boundaries of traditional media and genres.

Left: 'PROJECT HASHTAG 2022' Gallery Entrance. Photo by Swan Park. Image provided by MMCA Right: 'PROJECT HASHTAG 2022' Installation view. Photo by Swan Park. Image provided by MMCA

Selected out of more than 108 applicant teams, this year’s finalists are teams ‘Lost Air’ and ‘Crypton’. They submitted works that examine today’s political and socio-cultural issues while exploring the underground music scene as well as a virtual ecosystem through various mediums, including installments, performance, videos and more.

‘Lost Air’ (a team comprised of Lee Woogyeong, Lee Dayoung, Park Juyeong and Park Minju) explores the spatial and geopolitical meaning of parties in the Korean underground club scene through the tags #underground #parties #clubs #subculture and #community. The project consists of a series of four parties held throughout Seoul between July and September and a pre-performance in October held in collaboration with Hyundai Motor Group’s ZER01NE DAY, before presenting at MMCA Seoul, where the exhibition and closing party will be held. Each member of the team questions the point of intersection between art and technology in their own ways based on their different specialties and explores the expansion of subcultures and their communities.

Lost Air, Rave Geometry Series, 2022. Four-channel video, color, sound. Photo by Swan Park. Image provided by MMCA.

‘Crypton’ (a team comprised of Hwang Sukyung, Yeom Inhwa and Jeong Minju) explores the tags #generation #aging #disability #ecology and #accessibility. The team created a virtual environment, a fictional tourist destination called Koko Killing Island. The island’s empty center reflects today’s ecological topography, a landscape with no local specialty unique to a particular region, like coconuts and tangerines are no longer unique to certain regions. It’s also a metaphorical agora, a central public space where discussions about the issues of the past, present and future take place. The ecological approach and philosophical concept that run through their project are integrated into real-life objects, such as a tourist center and food court, as well as virtual objects, such as 3D digital images based on extended reality (XR), animations and interactive images. 

Crypton, Tour d’Epicure, 2022, 3D performative apparatus-environment, metal pedestal, crystal balls, griptoks, Dimensions variable. Photo by Swan Park. Image provided by MMCA

As we enter the end phase of the pandemic, the exhibition will present interesting perspectives through which young creators are analyzing and resolving the issues of the times.

Youn Bummo Director of MMCA

‘PROJECT HASHTAG 2022’ will also include seven side events to be carried out throughout the exhibition period, such as creator talk, workshop, and performance. The last week of the exhibition (April 3-9, 2023) will be ‘PROJECT HASHTAG 2022 WEEK’, during which Lost Air’s closing party and Crypton’s performance ‘Goodbye Koko’ will be presented. Please visit the official PROJECT HASHTAG website for more information.

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