TELL ME TELL ME

It’s 1976, and Australia has just got its first mainstream taste of video art, delivered by important Korean artist Nam June Paik during his Biennale visit. It was a big year for Australian-Korean artistic relations. The Biennale of that year included a renowned group of Korean artists, and marked a sharp departure from previous years – not least of which with the presence of video art, now so pervasive in modern galleries. In many ways, the year marked the beginning of a rich cultural exchange between Australian and Korean artists, as a window was opened onto contemporary Asian art, the ultimate influence of which we are yet to see as more and more spaces open their walls to previously unknown Asian artists. Tell Me Tell Me, opening this week, is an exhibition jointly curated by the MCA and the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul, that celebrates this exchange as part of the Australian-Korean Year of Friendship. It explores both the conceptual, fluxus and technological art of that first 1976 exchange (such as June Paik’s revelatory video works), as well as the various contemporary roads these movements have forged, covering more than 30 years of lively and challenging artistic dialogue between the two nations. Exhibiting at the National Art School Gallery while the MCA undergoes its long-awaited renovation, the show also features works from such artists as Marr Grounds, Noel Sheridan, Stelarc, Ken Unsworth, Moon-Seup Shim, U-Fan, Lee Brook Andrew, Nyapanyapa, Brown Council, Beom Kim, Hyun Ki Park, Chung Seo-Young, and Jooyeon Park (to name a few highlights). Likely to be the most comprehensive survey of this fascinating cultural exchange yet undertaken, Tell Me Tell Me promises to look both back on the history and forward to future relations, all in the spirit of a long and rewarding friendship.

Jun 17-Aug 24, National Art School Gallery, Forbes St, Darlinghurst, 9339 8744, nas.edu.au