MOM ∞ MAM; MÖBIUS OF BODY AND MIND

Opening on 1 April 2022, the SOMA Museum presents a major new exhibition MOM ∞ MAM: Möbius of body and mind. Curated by Stephanie Seungmin Kim, it is an ambitious study of creative and scientific developments in mind and body, in relation to sports and art. Located at the historic Seoul Olympic Park in Seoul, South Korea, SOMA Museum (Seoul Olympic Museum of Art) has been promoting art that embraces the body as the medium. The Soma Museum of Art announced that it had selected Stephanie Kim’s curatorial proposal as “it is a  project that presents the potential for expanding the notion of ‘sports art’ by showing the relationship between body and mind of sports and art in a variety of ways. The scope is both historical as well vast.” 

MOM ∞ MAM goes further by exploring the mind-body connection, stressing how the mind and body are not two separate entities but ever-connected beings, with the boundary between inside and outside unknown, like a Möbius strip.

Told through an assembly of artworks and juxtaposition of historical references, MOM ∞ MAM will introduce some of the world’s most prominent and exciting artists to Korea for the first time.

While connecting two very different fields, sports and arts, Mom ∞ Mam will look at different iterations of body and mind in both fields from many angles. The exhibition ventures into the future to examine issues at stake: AI creating artworks, the highly technical development of bodies of professional sportsmen and the gamified world of today. In order to create meaningful juxtaposition, the newly commissioned artworks are exhibited alongside archives and representations from eleven institutions, including some from the National Gallery London, the British Museum, and the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

First Section: MOM MAM
The human body is the home of the sensory system and the interface between an individual and society. Part of the beauty of sport is maximising the use of the human body through training and one’s will. Art embraces the fullness of expression of the body while sport creates extraordinary expressions of the body and both have implications across cultures and history.

Second Section: READY & GO
The second part looks into technological advances that will change art and sport forever. Je Baak’ s Let’s Swim Together investigates the rhetorical question of what would happen if AI learned to swim. Indeed, AI is without a body, therefore AI does not physically swim but conceives visually how to swim, and this conversely leads us to question the world we live in with AI and the purpose of our body.

Third Section: BRAVO
This third section in the exhibition shows that the most crucial aspects to be considered are humanism and collaboration. Still touching on sports and art, the last part shows how we inspire each other.