02 September 2024, Seoul - The Korea National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) is featuring the artworks of sixty-five (65) prominent artists from eleven (11) Asian counties in its Connecting Bodies: Asian Women Artists exhibition. This showcase celebrates the creativity and perspectives of Asian women artists from China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines through more than one hundred thirty 130 diverse artworks. The exhibition will run from 2 September 2024 to 3 March 2025.

The exhibition "Connecting Bodies: Asian Women Artists is attempts a new examination of the contemporary meaning of post-1960s art by Asian women from the perspective of "Corporeality" where "the body is a place where various ideologies and situations intersect, and it is also a locus that reveals differences and diversity."

The exhibition consists of six sections: "Choreograph Life," "Flexible Territories of Sexuality," "Bodies: God(dess)s.Cosmology," "Street Performances," "Repeating Gestures-Bodies.Objects.Language," and "Bodies as Becoming-Connecting Bodies".

Art luminaries from the Philippines in attendance included Imelda Cajipe Endaya and Agnes Arellano.

Artist Cajipe-Endaya, featured her artworks Kapatiran ng mga Lakambining Maybuhay Redux (Sisterhood of Nurturing Chieftains Redux) 2022 and Taghoy Piglas (Lament, set Free) 1984 highlighting the revolutionary sisterhoods in Philippine history and society. The remarkable artworks were well received by the guests.

Artist Agnes Arellano featured her Carcass-Cornucopia to the amazement and curiosity of the art goers. The female figure of Carcass-Cornucopia is a cast of the artists body, done in 1987. The cast was hooved, hung upside down with slaughterhouse hooks, and through the gaping hole of her slashed abdomen, the Serpent and bounty of the Universe split forth.

The exhibition also featured the artworks of the late Pacita Abad, namely, "Arjuna" 1983 acrylic paint, lace cloth on cotton on stitched and padded canvas and "Bakunawa", mythical figures found in the indigenous cultures of the Philippines and Indonesia in the pre-colonial era.

Works from the late Professor Brenda Fajardo's tarot series and video art by Eisa Jocson were also on exhibit.

The exhibition in collaboration with the MMCA Foundation was also supported by the Philippine Embassy in commemoration of 75th anniversary of Philippines-Korea diplomatic relations.

Present during the opening reception were members from the Diplomatic Corps in Korea, officials from government and private museums, cultural organizations, Filipino Community members, and leading members from the Korean mass media. Also in attendance were Philippine Ambassador Theressa Dizon-de Vega along with Officers and staff from the Philippine Embassy. END