Contemporary artist Yeondoo Jung, whose practice centers on media art including photography and video, is the subject of the solo exhibition MMCA Hyundai Motor Series 2023: Jung Yeondoo – One Hundred Years of Travels at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, Korea. As the 10th artist selected for the MMCA Hyundai Motor Series, an annual program inaugurated in 2014 to broaden the horizons of Korean contemporary art, Jung presents a selection of five works spanning video, installation, and sound, including four new pieces. Throughout his career, Jung has been focusing on the macro-narratives embedded in the stories of ordinary people and historical accounts, emphasizing the multifaceted existence and diverse voices therein. In this exhibition, the artist delves into historical and cultural liminalities, explores connections beyond temporal and spatial boundaries, and addresses the theme of ‘relocation and foreignness.’ 

The exhibition’s title, ‘One Hundred Years of Travels,’ signifies the historical narrative of the Korean diaspora to Mexico in the early 20th century. The thematic exploration traces back to the analogical alignment between the century-old story of Koreans uprooting to Mexico and the mythical journey associated with the prickly pear cactus, a plant that traversed from Mexico and took root in Jeju Island. The correlation between the 'transplantation' of the cactus across the Pacific and the 'migration' of Koreans expands their ongoing narrative beyond conventional diasporic paradigms, into other stories and lives. 

At the core of the exhibition lies the extensive four-channel video installation One Hundred Years of Travels (2023). This installation features videos of Korean pansori, Japanese gidayu-bunraku, and Mexican mariachi performances directed by the artist, derived from texts related to the relocation, and presented across three screens. Facilitated by numerous visits to Mexico, interviews with second-to-fifth-generation descendants of Korean immigrants, and recordings of the diverse tropical flora found at Yucatán state’s henequen farms, the artist employed methodological approaches grounded in relationships and performativity. 

Additional works in the exhibition include Generational Portraits, a paired presentation of two-channel video portraits of the descendants of Korean immigrants currently living in Mexico, and Wall of Blades, a 12-meter wall installation that conveys the significance of diaspora and politics of imperialism through machetes crafted from sugar. The artist’s adept utilization of multimedia, transcending photography and video, text and sound, and performance and installation, serves as a visual device that materializes diverse circumstances and the context of hybridity hidden under the ostensibly fixed narrative of diasporic history.

Jung’s solo exhibition, which captures the encounter of two disparate worlds and thereby encourages greater connections with the unknown in contemporary times, remains on view through February 25, 2024.