Venue: Art Center Nabi

There are new postings piling up in one’s timeline on SNS(Social Network Service) every second. By moving a scrollbar, one gains information of “the present” s/he has just passed through as well as “now” which is about to arrive. This sounds very natural these days. Moreover, one can just click a trending topic that is constantly updated to view other related subjects on top of the page, then one can access the most searched information over a specific timeframe that we prefers to explore. As it has become the norm that one stays connected to the network, the lag between the time that an event happensand the time one acknowledges it barely exists and the two time periods tend to overlap more and more.

In the current times, how “real” is real and how “virtual” is virtual?
When the time lag between the real and virtual is compensated, virtual events are easily perceived as real. Moreover,depending on the way we perceive time, the line between the real and virtual becomes blurred. Defining the terms “real” and “fiction” leads to a discussion about the temporality.The term temporality is deeply related to the passage of time. In the passing of time, there are no clear distinctions between the past, present and future, but it is a place where the present is situated by “now” and “here” which are constantly taking place. This means that how one defines “the present” determines how we interpret the reality and fiction. Such contemplation on time is significant since it allows us to imagine ourselves being present in a moment that has not come yet. “Today” on its way from “tomorrow” will soon become the present and therefore is closely connected to the moment of “now.” It is actively mobile and it stays floating around at the same time. This provides a situation where reality appears to be fiction or vice versa.

Through this exhibition, Real Fiction, Art center Nabi introduces the artworks presenting the potentiality of time between the reality and the fiction. Participating artists are A/A (Andreas Greiner/Armin Keplinger), Jihoon Byun, and Hyoungsan Jun. A/A is a Berlin-based media artist duo, and they are introduced to the Korean audience for the first time through this exhibition. Their work uncovers the double-sided aspect of the development of science and technology. This exhibition has an installation piece on display by the duo titled “1:1(2013)”. The piece has a device for ignition, which allows the audience to imagine the moment of an explosion. Contemplating a hypothetical situation is imagining an event that hasn’t taken place. However, this can still create a strong tension in our minds when we identifies the possible event as something that can be experienced in the present moment. The work confronts the audience with a potential reality that hasn’t arrived by presenting a destructive and drastic circumstance.

“Clock (2016)” is by Jihoon Byun who creates interactive artworks based on programming language and presents “visual-tactile”experiences through his work. Clock, presented for the very first time in this exhibition, is a real-time interactive work created with Particle, a programming tool that the artist has been building for the past few years. Functioning entirely in virtual reality, Clock processes and displays millions of moving particles and change of lights in real time, which allows the audience to perceive time as if it were tangible. “a priori bits #3; Radius (2014)” is a work by Hyoungsan Jun, an emerging artist who has created sound installations and performances with an interest in “non-musical sound.”The motif for a priori bits #3; Radius is the spinning machine, which is considered as an early form of the computer. The piece creates “sound-textiles” by structuralizing the undistinguishable noises found from the countless frequencies that drift among the standard radio frequencies. Each compartment in the piece functions as a composingtool as the sound is played by the shortwave radio coil, typewriter, and perforated plate sequentially as well as simultaneously. The exhibition Real Fiction presents seven pieces of work in total including the three works mentioned above.

Real Fiction serves as a mirror to look at the current time period where not only the virtual and the real are mixed up but also different values, ideologies, philosophies and circumstances are blended together. The exhibition provides the audience with a chance to view a variety of works dealing with different media and methodologies. It also encourages the audience to come up with questions for themselves as well as ways of framing questions about the time period they live in now.

+http://www.nabi.or.kr/english/project/current_read.nab?idx=553