The Daily Reflections exhibition from February 20th to March 9th at the Total Museum of Contemporary Art will examine the contemporary nature and universality of media arts through works by Japanese and Korean artists.

■The Japan Media Arts Festival at Total Museum of Contemporary Art
   Joint Special Exhibition: Daily Reflections (Exhibition, Screening and Related events)

Venue: Total Museum of Contemporary Art
465-16 Pyeongchang-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, Korea (110-848) 
Place: Seoul, Korea 
Term: Tursday, 20th Februrary to Sunday 9th March, 2014 11：00〜18：00 
Admission: Free 

Organizer: Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japan
Co-organizer: Total Museum of Contemporary Art

Planning director: Kenji Ueda (the Museum of Art, Kochi)
                             Nathalie Boseul Shin (Total Museum of Contemporary Art) 

The Total Museum of Contemporary Art was opened in 1976 as an open space, the Total Sculpture Park, and formally established upon receipt of official governmental recognition as South Korea’s first private sector art museum in 1988.

■On the Chosen Theme: Daily Reflections                     Kenji UEDA, Director of Planning 

With all the excitement, also, of wondering whether the exhibition could really be ready in time, I fixed on the themes of Mirrors and Movement. Mirror is a word which connects with Copying and Repetition. These are universals that frequently emerge in not only the history of art but also the history of culture. Sho Minase’s “I/F” and Wonbin’s “Species series” are certainly representations of that keyword, Copying, and Shunsuke Matsushima’s “Voice Portrait” copies, too, while simultaneously being a self-portrait that leads to the Mirror idea as well. The other key concept is Movement and Stillness. Youki Hirakawa’s “Frozen Leaf” appears to posses motion in stasis. This, too, is a universal philosophical theme.
Natalie, on the other hand, proposed many works such as “Google Maps 8-bit” which featured and utilized social media. She suggested the key concept of the Reflection of Society. In response to my proposal of the Mirror, she chose Reflection in both the optical sense and the meanings of reconsideration and introspection. I proposed Yuichiro Tamura’s “NIGHT LESS”, which uses Google Street View, as an exemplar of this. 
I hope that this exhibition will successfully weave the contemporary phenomena of the social media with the universal, unchanging ancient themes of the Mirror and Time. Selection of the exhibition’s title was a convoluted process and this was only decided at the very last: Daily Reflections. This title, Daily Reflections, encapsulates both my proposal for reconsideration and introspection on hidden aspects of the everyday and Natalie’s for a reflector (mirror) on the contemporary society in which we live.

■Exhibits

■Related events

Presentation: Media Arts in Japan
Kenji Ueda, director of planning for this exhibition, talks about the past few years in Japan’s media art scene

Speaker: UEDA Kenji, curator at The Museum of Art, Kochi
Date: Thursday 20 February from 16:00
Venue: Lecture room

Artist Talk: Brunch with Artists
Talks on Saturdays during the exhibition by participating South Korean artists.

Date: Every Saturday from 12:00 to 14:00
Venue: Total Museum Café
Daily schedule: 2.22 (sat.)  Bang & Lee / 3.1 (sat.)  HYBE / 3.8 (sat.)  LEE Zune

Workshop: BETWEEN YESTERDAY & TOMORROW 2014 in SEOUL
Participants make and show 3-minute videos during the exhibition in this South Korean BYT Project. Project supervisor Shinjiro Maeda both advises participants directly and makes his own work in Seoul.

Lectuler: MAEDA Shinjiiro (SOL CHORD) / SEO hyojung
Date:  [Briefing session] Thursday 27 February from 16:00
          [Preview and talk] Sunday 2 March from 15:00
Venue: Lecture room Participants: 5-10 participants.

Demonstration: nubot
The new communication tool, nubot, is put to use to link Seoul and Tokyo by video chat. Event visitors can experience the conversation and action that erases all sense of distance.

Date: Thursday 20 February from 18:00 to 19:00 
Venue: Total Museum Café Artist: KOUZUMA Sekai (nuuo)

■Program Screening
Japan Media Arts Festival 2013 Award-winning Works ‒Video Program (120min.)-