Page 9 - ebook

Ji Hyang Park Chief Curator, Wooyang Museum of contemporary Art

“Bodily ARTivity” is a follow-up exhibition to “Forest of Sense,” which was hosted by the Wooyang Museum of
Contemporary Art in the summer of 2021. While “Forest of Sense” aimed to restore the full range of human perception
(which had been limited by the prolonged nature of the COVID-19 pandemic) and use it as the basis for exploring
the relationship between the individuality of sensation and human identity, “Bodily ARTivity” begins from a meta-

perception of the body, which remains subject to many restrictions amid a global situation that continues to be chaotic
and unpredictable.

In his book Phénoménologie de la perception, French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty points to the agency of

the human body, which is the source of all perception. He argued that we can communicate directly with art through
the body, the most basic stage of human action, by transferring our thoughts into our actions. In other words, it is only
when the body—the primitive medium of the act of perception—is given the role of agent of not only perception but
also meaningful relationships with others that we can forge genuine relationships with works of art.

Through the creations of four teams of artists (ARISONG, Jin Kyung Chong, Won Pyo Hong and STUDIO 1750) on art
and activity, this exhibition presents interpretations of and responses to “the world we experience on the flipside of the
objective world.” It also encourages viewers to concentrate not on their mental selves but their physical sensations and

movements, thereby allowing one’s imagination to roam free while responding to various stimuli and artistic effects and
expanding one’s sensory experiences. “Bodily ARTivity” offers new experiences of stimuli through activities conducted
in a creative, artistic setting that advocate freedom and fun as opposed to semantic analysis or a lofty “objective.”