The Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1 has announced a partnership with the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) in Seoul that has expanded the international Young Architects Program (YAP) to South Korea. Just as YAP presents opportunities for emerging architects to design and build temporary installations in New York, Chile, Rome and Istanbul, YAP Korea will offer the MMCA’s outdoor Museum Plaza as the summer installation site.
Already, a winner has been chosen from 26 submissions to serve as the inaugural YAP Korea installation. With completion planned for July 8, winning team Moon Ji Bang (Threshold) is amidst the final preparations for mystical, mythology-inspired installation that will transcend visitors from the daily hustle into a cloud-like landscape of air balloon structures.
“Moon Ji Bang’s winning proposal, Shinseon Play, is based on a traditional Korean fantasy,” described the press release. “Shinseons are imaginary Taoist hermits widely shared in East Asian mythology, originating from around 2,500 years ago. They live on top of high mountains or above clouds, transcending the hustle and bustle of the human world of joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure. Roughly equivalent to the ancient Greek gods, they occasionally descend to the human world to intervene or work miracles.
“At the top of the air balloon structure proposed in Shinseon Play, visitors can bask in the summer sun as if walking through clouds; while below they can enjoy shade while sitting on the grass. A trampoline will be placed among the gently swaying balloons, so one can jump up and puncture the cloud of mist above, symbolically moving between heaven and earth. While walking above the “cloud” on a wooden bridge, visitors will experience a magic atmosphere, and face the grandeur of the Kyungbok palace and the Inwang Mountain.”
Moon Ji Bang's team is comprised of Choi Jang-won, Park Cheon-kang, and Kwon Kyung-min.
Shinseon Play will be installed in MMCA’s Museum Plaza from July 8 through October 5, 2014. The other 26 general YAP candidates and the five final proposals are slated to be introduced and displayed in Exhibition Hall 7 during the same period. The architectural works presented by five teams of final candidates in each city are also scheduled to be exhibited at MoMA, MAXXI, Istanbul Modern, and Constructo in Santiago.
