Currently, Philippe Parreno’s “VOICES” exhibition is enjoying a great deal of popularity at the Leeum Museum of Art.

This marks Parreno’s first solo exhibition at an art museum in Korea and Leeum Museum’s largest exhibition ever, in collaboration with Haus der Kunst in Munich, a renowned international art institution.

The exhibition showcases a comprehensive survey of the artist's major works, including video, sound, installation, and drawings from the 1990s and new outdoor large-scale installations, are presented in his M2, M3, deck, and lobby.

“VOICE” itself is a huge immersive installation.

While seemingly divided into separate spaces, they are connected and breathing together like living organisms through artificial intelligence.

Parreno is renowned for his extraordinary interest in the interaction between the audience and art.

Kim Seong-won, Leeum Museum’s Deputy Director and exhibition curator, explained at a press conference on the 26th that, "Parreno's exhibition is not a 'viewing' exhibition. It is an exhibition like a 'performance' in which visitors must experience time within it."

If this exhibition is a performance, it begins at the large tower ‘Mak’ installed outdoors.

“Mak” appears to be a mechanical tower that makes sound, but in reality it is an artificial intelligence and control tower equipped with a huge sensor function.

It collects all elements, including outdoor temperature, humidity, wind volume, noise, air pollution, and even subtle vibrations, and the data goes into the museum and operates various works with sound.

The exhibition title ‘Voices’ symbolizes ‘multiple voices’ rather than one voice.

Multiple voices are key elements that continually appear in the artist's work, and they are the voices that create the narrative of the work and exhibition.

These voices bring life to the object and transform it into a speaking subject.

“Multiple Voices” encompasses a number of works with multifaceted meanings created in different time and space.

The exhibition ‘Voices’ brings these multiple voices into one space and allows them to be reborn as independent objects.

Leeum Museum of Art has dedicated all six of its spaces to this artist, making it the largest solo exhibition ever held at Leeum.

Philippe Parreno is a contemporary French artist living and working in Paris who has expanded the experience of art by experimenting with synesthetic exhibition formats.

His work includes film, installation, performance, drawing and text.

Through his artwork, Philippe Parreno transcends traditional ideas of time and period and focuses on a unique concept of exhibition as a medium.

Preferring projects over objects, he began exploring unique approaches to narration and representation in the 1990s and has been exhibiting internationally since.

He curated his exhibition as a place of immersive experiences rather than an event where individual works are collected and presented

He collaborates with experts in various fields such as sound experts, linguists, and actors, and presents scenography using the latest technologies such as data linkage, DMX, and artificial intelligence.

Spanning from early works in the 1990s to new creations this year and introduces about 40 works by Parreno, who is passionate about ‘auditory landscape.’

Anish Kapoor’s “Big Trees and Forests,” a symbol of the Leeum Museum of Art, was removed after 11 years in order to exhibit this artist’s work.

Instead, Philippe Parreno’s new artwork will be installed on an outdoor deck.

The exhibition opens on February 28th and runs until July 7th.

Kyujin Joung
Grade 10
Yongsan High School