Collection_Opening, Hacking, Mining brings together various subjects constituting the museum to reimagine an experimental approach to the institution’s permanent collection, and as a result, create new meaning in the interpretation, appreciation, and management of the artworks. The task is especially timely, as Seoul Museum of Art embarks on its plans to transition into a greater network of museums, requiring a more complex and multifaceted research of the permanent collection at its foundation. Moreover, it is necessary, now more than ever, to reexamine the collection based on the online system, considering the increasingly contact-free environment today.
In order to achieve these objectives, this exhibition does not center around any specific theme or key artwork, but instead consists of three different projects that unfold at once. First, Excavating -Research and Criticism Project attempts to “excavate” the future direction and new identity of the collection. Second, Hacking-Project for Learning explores various methods of engaging with the artworks in the current age of the COVID-19 pandemic, inviting the artists and viewers to proactively “hack” the collection and reexamine the conditions of value and appreciation. Lastly, Opening-Collection Management System Project “opens” up the museum’s collection management system, which was previously only accessible by the museum staff, in the offline exhibition space to reimagine its standards and systems, ultimately demonstrating the essence of art and its possibilities for expansion through the gaps revealed in the system.

Seoul Museum of Art strives to renew its endlessly growing collection, and build the foundation for subsequent research. This exhibition not only represents the museum’s experimental attempt to differentiate itself from other institutions, but also an opportunity to envision how the museum’s collection may serve and position itself in the landscape and context of Korean and global contemporary art.