Cover of the “MMCA Studies × Stedelijk Studies.” Design: Sulki and Min; Injin. ©MMCA
The
National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA; Director Kim
Sunghee) and the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (SMA) in the Netherlands will
jointly publish “MMCA Studies × Stedelijk Studies: Generating Production” on
Monday, 1 December 2025, as the result of a year-long collaborative research
and publishing project.
Since
launching the joint publication project in June 2024 the MMCA and SMA have
worked closely together with Seoul-based independent curator and art historian
Sooyoung Leam, who was selected as the project’s editorial fellow.
A total
of 16 contributors, both individual and group, participated in the project,
engaging in multiple rounds of discussion before selecting “Generating
Production: Infrastructures of Technology and the Politics of Productivity in
Asia” as the overarching theme, with subtopics including: the modernization of
industrial production in East Asia; technological issues surrounding generative
AI; the convergence of technology and art exhibitions from cybernetics to AI;
and alternative artistic practices.
Sooyoung Leam, Editorial fellow of the “MMCA Studies × Stedelijk Studies.” ©MMCA
Anchored
in the geopolitical and historical specificities of Asia, “MMCA Studies ×
Stedelijk Studies: Generating Production” critically examines contemporary art
and technology phenomena through the lenses of generation and production. The
publication delves into the impact of generative AI technologies on art and
museum institutions, aspects of art and labor within Asia’s technological
environment where industrialization and deindustrialization are simultaneously
in progress, and alternative understandings of technology through low-tech and
handcraft-based practices.
Notably,
Singaporean artist Ho Rui An offers an acute diagnosis of how the technological
infrastructure built across Asia during the Cold War to establish national
identities has paradoxically evolved into today’s cross-border information
circulation systems, such as the internet and cloud platforms. Museology
scholar Park Sohyun examines the ideology of state-led modernization embedded
in museums through Korean Pavilion exhibitions at international expositions in
the 1960s and 1970s, grounded in Korea’s developmentalist ideals.
Cover of the “MMCA Studies × Stedelijk Studies.” Design: Sulki and Min; Injin. ©MMCA
Contributors
to this publication include contemporary art collectives and practitioners
based in Korea and abroad, such as Unmake Lab (Korea), Ho Rui An (Singapore),
and Nagata Kosuke (Japan); curators and producers such as Yi Moon-seok (manager
of MMCA Residency Goyang), the Asian Feminist Studio for Art and Research
(AFSAR; contemporary art research collective), Shin Jinyoung (director of
apparat/us), and Jeon Youjin (director of Woman Open Tech Lab).
Researchers
and curators contributing to the publication include Park Sohyun (Professor of
the Graduate School of Public Policy and Information Technology, Seoul National
University of Science and Technology), Mi You (Professor of Art and Economies
at the University of Kassel and the documenta Institute, Germany), Cheon
Hyundeuk (Professor of Science Studies, Seoul National University), Koh Achim
(independent researcher and data activist), Lee Sooyon (curator at the MMCA),
Charl Landvreugd (Head of Research and Curatorial Practice at the SMA),
Kathleen Ditzig (curator at the National Gallery Singapore), and Ryan Ho (Head
of Innovation & Experience Design at the National Gallery Singapore).
Exterior view of Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam ©Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
To
commemorate the publication’s release, a public program, “In Borrowed Tongues:
Editors’ Notes on Art, Asia, and AI” will be held in Amsterdam on Sunday, 23
November, at 3:30 p.m. at the Stedelijk Museum Auditorium. Three
participants—Sooyoung Leam, Charl Landvreugd, and Tiffany Yeon Chae (curator at
MMCA)—will introduce the publication in detail and share reflections on the
18-month collaboration and its spirit of “learning from one another.”
This
project holds significance as an occasion of co-publishing East Asian
contemporary art discourse with a major European institution and as a joint
initiative supporting the next generation of editors and researchers while
underscoring the practical role of museums in knowledge production.
The
printed volume will be available at the MMCA Art Book Shop, SMA Bookshop and
through Korean online retailers, while the SMA will release the
English-language content in the form of an online journal (https://stedelijkstudies.com).
