Artist TZUSOO’s artworks are on display at the Seoul Box of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art’s main branch in central Seoul on July 31, 2025, in this photo provided by the museum. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, July 31 (Korea Bizwire) — The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) is set to unveil a new exhibition by genre-bending artist TZUSOO on Friday, transforming the open, central Seoul Box exhibition space with a physical manifestation of her intricate digital world.
TZUSOO is the inaugural artist featured in the museum’s new, annual “MMCA X LG OLED” campaign, a collaboration aimed at exploring the intersection of contemporary art and technology to expand the possibilities of visual expression.
Titled “Agarmon Encyclopedia: Leaked Edition,” the exhibition explores the themes of life, desire and endless cycles.
At a press conference Thursday at MMCA’s Seoul branch, the exhibition’s curator, Park Deok-sun, said the artist was chosen for her “acute sensitivity to the digital native generation and contemporary gender issues,” as well as her “originality, critical perspectives and sincere attitude towards her works.”
“The artist has long held a desire to become a mother, a feeling that often conflicts with her identity as an artist and her everyday life,” the curator explained. “Through the process of creating and caring for her own avatar and ‘Agarmon,’ she explores themes of sexuality and gender in her work.”
Artist TZUSOO is seen in this photo, provided by the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art and Jusung Hyung. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
At the center of the Seoul Box, an incubator holds the fifth edition of “Agarmon,” a living sculpture created from agar and moss. The entity grows in response to its environment, kept moisturized by a steady drop of water from above.
Complementing the sculpture are two large-scale video works, “The Eight Spirits of Flesh — TAE” and “The Eight Spirits of Flesh — GAN.”
The pieces feature alien-like creatures flying through a digital world, expressing the artist’s discourse on sexuality and desire. The video installation is displayed on 88 55-inch LG OLED screens — the biggest number ever used for a single artistic purpose, according to the MMCA.
Opening an exhibition at the MMCA was “a dream come true,” the artist said, explaining the museum has been like “Disneyland” to her since she was young.
Beyond her excitement, she noted her long-held desire for art museums to dedicate space to maternal desire and sexuality, which she considers fundamental aspects of human nature.
Born in Seoul in 1992, the artist majored in printmaking and art studies at Seoul’s Hongik University. She later received a diploma from the Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design in Germany, where she currently teaches.
The MMCA noted that there are no rules about how artists must use the LG products, saying the chosen artist is simply given access to LG’s state-of-the-art technology to use wherever it is needed for their art.
The exhibition at MMCA’s Seoul gallery runs through Feb. 1.
(Yonhap)
