Korean artists’ fantasies come to life in Italy

Choi Xoo-ang’s “The Wing,” left, and Kim Jung-wook’s “Untitled,” part of the “Who is Alice?” exhibition at Spazio Lightbox in Venice. By Moon So-young

VENICE, Italy - Spazio Lightbox, a building near the famous Ca’ d’Oro palace on the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy, has turned into a wonderland filled with the fantasies of Korean artists.

Korea’s National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art is holding an exhibition called “Who is Alice?” as a collateral event of the ongoing 55th Venice Biennale. For the exhibition, the museum said it has selected “30 works by 16 Korean artists that traverse the boundaries of ‘reality and non-reality,’ and ‘dreams and the real,’?” from its permanent collection.

The exhibition starts with “Pendulum of Secret,” a group of pendulums swinging amid mystical illumination. It’s by kinetic artist U-ram Choe, known as a “creator of mechanical organisms.”

In the next room hangs a pair of wings made of creepily realistic human hands by sculptor Choi Xoo-ang. They stretch out as if pleading to make a pair of wings. On the walls are Kim Jeong-wook’s paintings of human faces with big eyes that each hold a dark abyss. Other rooms also feature works by artists famous both in Korea and abroad, such as Haegue Yang and Jung Yeon-doo.

The exhibition runs through Nov. 24. Admission is free. The hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. It is closed on Monday. Go to the Ca d’Oro vaporetto (water bus) stop and walk for five minutes. For more information, visit www.mmca.go.kr.

BY MOON SO-YOUNG [symoon@joongang.co.kr]