For the 140th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Korea and Italy, the MAO Museo d’Arte Orientale, Turin is presenting the exhibition Rabbit inhabits the Moon, in partnership with Nam June Paik Art Center (Yongin, Korea) and the Fondazione Bonotto (Colceresa, Italia), and with support from the Korea Foundation.

The exhibition is curated by Davide Quadrio, director of the museum, and Joanne Kim, Korean critic and curator, with Anna Musini and Francesca Filisetti. Curatorial and scholarly consulting was provided by Manuela Moscatiello (Chargée d’étude, Maison de Victor Hugo, Paris), Kyoo Lee (curator for the shamanism room, Professor of Philosophy, City University of New York) and Patrizio Peterlini (director of Fondazione Bonotto).

Rabbit inhabits the Moon aims to stimulate dynamic dialogue reflecting the development of the cultural and artistic landscape of the two countries, particularly reinterpreting the legacy of Nam June Paik and his influence on contemporary artists. New works by Korean artists Kyuchul Ahn, Jesse Chun, Shiu Jin, Young-chul Kim, Dae-sup Kwon, Chan-Ho Park, Sunmin Park and eobchae × Sungsil Ryu, along with videos and installations from the collection of Nam June Paik Art Center are paired with famous works by Paik – mostly on loan from Fondazione Bonotto – and fine traditional objects from prestigious institutions, including the Musée Guimet - Musée national des Arts asiatiques, Paris, the Museo d’Arte Orientale ‘E. Chiossone’, Genoa, and the Museo delle Civiltà, Rome.

The exhibition Rabbit inhabits the Moon revolves around the figure of Nam June Paik (Seoul, 1932 – Miami, 2006), one of the most important artists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and a pioneer of video art. Trained as a pianist and musicologist, Paik explored technological progress in his works, using a mixed language that combined mass media and the customs of western capitalistic and commercial society with the rituals of the Korean poetry and music and the country’s cultural and shamanic traditions.

As inferred by the title, the literary topos of the rabbit in the moon, common to many cultures in the Far East – China, Japan, Korea – as well as Central Asia, Iran and Turkey, is the starting point from which the exhibition’s other themes naturally branch off. Inspired by the eponymous installation by Paik from 1996, in which the rabbit in the legend becomes a wooden sculpture that looks at an image of the moon on a television screen, in this exhibition reality and imagination, tradition and technology meet, repeat and mirror each other, in a synthesis of content that emerges as the exhibition unfolds, through a complex game of references and reinterpretations.

The painstaking, immersive exhibition design also highlights the coexistence of symbols, techniques, materials and objects from different times and places, creating an itinerary free of fixed chronological coordinates in which themes move in parallel, intersect, and cyclically re-emerge, like in a piece of woven fabric.

Traditional and ritual elements of Korean culture are revealed through the dialogue between ancient and modern and an in-depth analysis, curated by Kyoo Lee, of shamanism in relation to Nam June Paik. A screening dedicated to the shamanic practices explored by photographer Chanho Park will take place in the Museum's multi-purpose room.

Also central to the exhibition is the musical and performative sound component, which appears in the most diverse forms in the works by Paik, especially in connection with his participation in the Fluxus movement and his long-term collaboration with the cellist Charlotte Moorman, as well as in the reformulations offered by contemporary artists. Specially commissioned by MAO for the exhibition, Sounds heard from the Moon. Part 2 (2024) is a new work by Jiha Park, whose work draws on traditional Korean instruments, like the piri (a double-reed bamboo flute), Saenghwang (bamboo mouth organ) and Yanggeum (hammered dulcimer), using a minimalist approach that privileges repetition, variation and process.

In the installation Nocturne no. 20 / Counterpoint (2013–2020), Kyuchul Ahn reinterprets a piece by Chopin, removing one of the eighty-nine hammers of the piano after each performance, causing the gradual disappearance of the sound.

The performance will be presented with the collaboration of the pianists Gloria Campaner and Sun Hee You and is made possible thanks to the sponsorship of Piatino pianoforti.