작업 소개

57STUDIO는 서울시립 북서울미술관에서 열린 레안드로 에를리치의 개인전 <레안드로 에를리치: 그림자를 드리우고>의 티저 영상 시리즈를 기획 및 제작하였습니다. 레안드로 에를리치는 거울과 빛을 활용한 시각적 착시 기법으로 현실과 환영의 경계를 탐구하는 작품을 선보이며, 세계적으로 주목받고 있는 작가입니다. 이번 전시는 ‘주체와 타자’의 관계성을 중심으로, 관객이 직접 경험하며 인식의 불확실성과 유동성을 체감할 수 있도록 구성되었습니다. 57STUDIO는 전시의 핵심 개념을 효과적으로 전달하기 위해 티저 영상을 제작하여, 전시의 몰입도를 높이고 관객들에게 흥미를 유도하였습니다.

57STUDIO planned and produced a teaser video series for Leandro Erlich’s solo exhibition Leandro Erlich: Shadows Cast at the Seoul Museum of Art (Seoul Metropolitan North Museum). Leandro Erlich is a globally recognized artist known for exploring the boundary between reality and illusion through visual tricks using mirrors and light. The exhibition focuses on the relationship between ‘subject and other’ and is designed to allow the audience to directly experience and feel the uncertainty and fluidity of perception. To effectively convey the core concepts of the exhibition, 57STUDIO created teaser videos that enhanced the exhibition’s immersive experience and sparked interest among viewers.

1. (Left) The Cloud(South Korea), (Right) The Cloud(North Korea)

Inspired by the maps of South and North Korea, Clouds reflects on the themes of “borderlessness” and “transience.” The work consists of nine glass panels on each side, and when viewed at a 90-degree angle from the right, reveals the shapes of its motifs. Like clouds gathering and scattering, the meaning and essence of an individual subject can change according to its surrounding conditions. As a foreign observer, the artist sees the South-North Korea relations as an interesting example where the relationship between the “Subject” and the “Other” is revealed in reality, as the dynamic between the two countries with conflicting political ideologies constantly changes according to the global political climate. There is nothing whose essence or nature is invariable. Everything that constructs our world is connected and their boundaries are ambiguous. The same can be said about the way viewers recognized the shapes of clouds as we connect them with the forms of objects that we have previously seen. Our past experiences and interests will guide the way we view the object.

2. In the Shadow of the Pagoda

Structurally based on one of Erlich’s best-known works, Swimming Pool, In the Shadow of the Pagoda is a new installation specially produced for this exhibition. The work is inspired by the legend of the “Shadowless Pagoda” that surrounds Korea’s historical treasure, the Seokgatap Pagoda. In the legend, a stonemason named Asadal leaves his home and wife Asanyeo to work on the construction of the Seokgatap pagoda. Asanyeo believes that a shadow of the pagoda will appear on the water when the pagoda is completed, but when it fails to appear, she tragically drowns herself in the pond. A shadow is always variable depending on its relationship to the thing it reflects. By recreating the story’s image of the shadow in physical space, the artist paradoxically highlights the instability of human perception. Through the intersecting gaze between the views from above and below the water, the work traverses the boundaries of the “subject” and “object.” The viewers under the surface of the water may experience a strange, liberating feeling of crossing over the boundaries, and the fear of being trapped under water at the same time. They become part of the work as they will recognize the gaze of those viewers from above. With its symmetrical dual structure, the boundaries between reality and illusion, subject and object become blurred in In the Shadow of the Pagoda, and everything exists in equal value without priority. This new variation on Erlich’s iconic earlier work holds special significance as 2019 marked the twentieth anniversary of Swimming Pool.

3. Lost Garden

Resembling a courtyard of a building, Lost Garden utilizes mirrors to create the illusion of an expanded garden beyond the actual space. The viewers looking into the window will find themselves in confusion as they are greeted by their own reflection on the opposite windows. The square garden that they see across the window is, in fact, created by two large mirrors placed together at a 90-degree angle, and is only ¼ size of the space it appears to be. Though the work exists as a physical structure, the core of the work lies in the interaction between the viewers through the experience. What the viewer sees through the window is not just his or her own reflection, but also those of others. Through the simple visual structure of mirrors, Erlich encourages the viewers to question the validity of their visual perception in a paradoxical situation where things appear and vanish simultaneously.

4. Changing Rooms

Changing Rooms presents a labyrinth-like structure created by connecting the fitting rooms, or changing rooms, that we commonly see at the department stores. In the work, the changing rooms, which normally serve as a space to change clothes in retail stores, become detached from their original function and recreated into a new kind of space. The viewers who enter the work experience visual confusion, as they do not know which wall is open space, or a mirror. The viewers are unexpectedly confronted with others in places where they expect to see their own reflection in the mirror, while in others, they are faced with an endless reflection of themselves. Through the unpredictability of the situation, the viewers mutually influence the viewing experience and attitude of one another.

5. The View

The View is Leandro Erlich’s earliest work in video, consisted of fifteen screens displaying various moments in the everyday life of the middle-class citizens in Buenos Aires. Like a muted TV, the video is presented without sound through the blinds of windows. The voyeuristic setting of the work, in which the viewers peep through the blinds into others’ homes, recalls Alfred Hitchcock’s film, Rear Window. Aside from the voyeuristic aspect where the viewer can see others but not vice versa, the focal point of the work is the very act of “seeing others,” a common thread which runs through all of Erlich’s works. According to the artist’s own words, these “windows” in the nightscape of our city become small lightboxes, much like TV screens, that narrate the stories of our lives.

6. Elevator Maze

Created by connecting four elevator cars together, Elevator Maze is an installation which wittily explores the tension between what we actually see, and what we are accustomed to seeing. By removing the mirror from the wall where it should be, the artist presents the viewers with a strangely different experience. In the place of a mirror where the viewers expect to see their own reflection, they are faced with an open wall where another viewer may be standing, presenting a strange and unexpected experience in the familiar, everyday space of an elevator. The feeling of such strangeness in a familiar setting, which we define as “uncanny”, is an overarching theme that runs throughout Erlich’s oeuvre.

7. Car Cinema

Car Cinema consists of thirteen sand cars facing a screen that shows real cars racing down the highway. The sound of the racing cars echoes through the speakers, like a faraway dream that will never be realized for the sand cars. Erlich regards sand as a distinctly poetic material for his work. The artist explains that it represents one of the most basic acts of human creation through sand play, while in this work, it ironically takes the form of cars, which represent one of the most significant technological achievements of modern society. The use of sand as material also reflects on how the processes of creation and extinction are not independent from one another. Rocks become decomposed and broken down into sand, but sand then becomes a useful resource for creating many of the necessities of modern society such as glass, concrete, semiconductors, and etc. The cars in the video and the sand cars in the exhibition space exchange their gaze as they reveal the contrast between existence and nonexistence, material and symbol, the real and the reflection. Car Cinema is a variation on Erlich’s earlier work, Order of Importance, which presented mini sand cars and their moldings in 2018. This year Erlich developed the work and introduced sixty-six life-size sand cars along a beach in Miami during Art Basel in December 2019.

전시 소개 글
Exhibition introduction text

레안드로 에를리치는 주로 거울 등을 이용한 시각적 착시를 적용해 엘리베이터, 수영장 등 친숙한 공간을 소재로 한 설치 작품을 선보여 왔으며, 작품성과 동시에 대중성을 입증하며 세계 곳곳에서 활발히 활동 중인 작가이다. 서울시립 북서울미술관에서 개최되는 이번 전시 《레안드로 에를리치: 그림자를 드리우고》는 지금까지 작가가 주로 다루었던 ‘인식’이라는 주제에서 나아가 ‘주체’와 ‘타자’의 관계성에 대한 질문을 던지고 있다.

이전의 전시가 우리가 보는 세계가 실재와 일치하는 것이 아닐 수 있음을 환기하면서 ‘환영과 실재’, ‘허구와 진실’ 등의 개념을 주로 드러냈다면, 이번 전시에서 작가는 ‘나 혹은 ‘주체’란 그를 둘러싼 관계 속에서 만들어지며 결국 ‘주체’와 ‘타자’의 경계가 모호함을 언급한다. 서로 다르다고 생각되는 두 개의 대상을 구분 짓는 경계는 조건과 상황에 의해 만들어진 가변적인 것으로 결국 세상을 구성하는 모든 것들은 연결되어 있고, 그 사이의 경계는 희미하다. 광원에 따라 형태가 달라지는 그림자처럼, 우리가 보는 세상, 혹은 타자라 생각하는 대상은 우리의 시선을 광원으로 해서 만들어진 그림자일 뿐이다.

총 네 개의 전시 공간으로 구성된 전시는 대형 공간설치 작품 <자동차 극장>과 <탑의 그림자>를 처음으로 선보이며, 전시 주제를 상징적으로 담고 있는 조각 작품 <구름(남한, 북한)>으로 마무리된다. 이 밖에도 색다른 체험 요소가 있는 기존 작품들을 전시한다. 《레안드로 에를리치: 그림자를 드리우고》 전은 작가 특유의 유머러스하고 기발한 발상으로 현실에서는 불가능한 새로운 미적 경험을 제공하는 특별한 전시로, 세계적인 수준의 현대미술을 접할 수 있는 드문 기회가 될 것이다.

SeMA, Buk-Seoul Museum of Art is pleased to present Leandro Erlich: Both SidesNow, a solo exhibition of work by Argentinian artist Leandro Erlich from December 17, 2019 through June 21, 2020. Leandro Erlich is an internationally-exhibited contemporary artist whose work has been widely acclaimed for both its originality and popularity. His installations transform familiar, everyday spaces, such as an elevator, staircase and swimming pool by creating optical illusions using mirrors and other various materials. The artist’s current exhibition at the Buk-SeMA, Leandro Erlich: Both Sides Now, goes beyond examining his central theme of “perception,” and further questions the relationship between the “Subject” and the “Other.” Whereas the artist’s previous exhibitions explored concepts such as “the illusion and the real,” or “the imaginary and the truth” by reminding the viewers of how the world we perceive and the real are not always the same, this exhibition focuses on how the “I,” or the “Subject,” is formed through surrounding relationships, and therefore makes the boundaries between the “Subject” and the “Other” ambiguous. Those boundaries, which separate two seemingly different entities, remain variable according to their conditions and circumstances. There is nothing in this world whose essence or nature is invariable. Everything that consists of our world is connected, and their boundaries are far from clear-cut. As shadows change according to their light source, the world we perceive, and those we regard as the “Other,” exist as shadows created by our own perspectives.
Presented across four exhibition galleries of the museum, this exhibition introduces new works Car Cinema and In the Shadow of the Pagoda, two site-specific installations that dominate the space with their massive scale and ends with The Cloud(South Korea, North Korea), a sculptural piece reflecting on the theme of the exhibition. Offering a unique viewer experience, the exhibition will also present a selection of Erlich’s earlier works. Highlighting the artist’s distinct sense of humor and brilliant imagination that push the boundaries of reality, Leandro Erlich: Both Sides Now hopes to provide the viewers with a new aesthetic experience representing the forefront of contemporary art.

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