September 29, 2020 – February 28, 2021

In MMCA Hyundai Motor Series 2020: Haegue Yang - O2 & H2O, the artist attempts another leap toward "the abstraction of reality." As the major energies of living organisms, air and water do no exist purely in natural states as chemical symbols. While O2 & H2O refers precisely to specific materials, the title feels abstract at the same time, metaphorically expressing the evolution of the artist's persistent interest in tracing formless sensorial experience with the abstract language of art. O2 & H2O poses questions to contemplate in totality the world of scientific facts, the perceptual world including experiences and senses that venture beyond such facts, and the phenomenal world that is gradually pushed to the brink with the climate crisis and disasters.

Haegue Yang (b. 1971, based in Seoul and Berlin) has been acclaimed as one of the most influential artists in the contemporary international art scene since the mid-1990s. Employing multifarious materials of ordinary, industrial, and pseudo-folk natures, her work freely traverses themes such as the relationship between the narrative and the abstract, domesticity, migration, and borders without any hierarchical order. Her vast cultural references encompass historical figures, events, and natural and societal phenomena, metamorphosing with her mesmerizing yet rigorous visual language.

National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea