MEDIA RELEASE
Wedding dresses, abandoned buildings and Michelangelo
As Dr Stephen Epstein writes: “Although a New Zealand audience may initially find it a trifle odd that artists
Bona Park and Eunji Cho, South Korean women born in the 1970s, pay homage to a septuagenarian Italian
painter in titling a performance project that blends music, video and more,” perhaps seeing the
Michealangelo Pistoletto Band in the flesh might make more sense.
Drawing on a Korean tradition of “edgy, subversive humour that runs back to the pre-modern period, when
itinerant troupes would entertain villagers with masked drama and other forms of comedy that satirised the
aristocrats in power,” the artist duo attracted the attention of New Zealand curators Aaron Lister and Karl
Chitham.
While traveling on a Curatorial Tour of Korea and China supported by the Asia:New Zealand Foundation and
Creative New Zealand, Lister and Chitham met Bona Park and Eunji Cho in an artist’s residency
programme and decided their subversive act would resonate with a New Zealand audience, especially
through its use of quirky performative modes to question a changing urban landscape.
After this meeting the Seoul based performers will tour New Zealand in early August, bringing their unique
ambient electro-pop love songs to Auckland, Wellington, Hamilton and Dunedin. The MPB will perform in
Hamilton as part of the Spark Festival where they will give a workshop, a performance and display work in a
group exhibition at Massey University’s RAMP Gallery called Raised Voices.
The band perform in all manner of garb and use abandoned landscapes to highlight the massive social
changes happening in South Korea, striving to make familiar urban landscapes unfamiliar. As Epstein writes
of one of the videos, “Park and Cho pedal a swan boat backwards in a park pond that has since
disappeared to make way for redevelopment, and a disembodied voice recites to the beat of a rudimentary
and mechanical techno backing track.” The work is edgy, eerie and haunting, representing a new
generation’s struggle to find their place in the increasingly commercialized and urbanized spaces of a
country embracing Western ideals.
Their work is also currently on exhibition at City Gallery Wellington until 23 August as part of the North
Programme. The exhibition features the band’s music videos from the last two years and premieres newly
made work.
The Auckland and Dunedin events are a performance only.
Generously supported by the Asia New Zealand Foundation and SPARK International Festival, the
Michelangelo Pistoletto Band (MPB) Tour is a joint initiative between the Calder & Lawson Gallery,
Hamilton, and City Gallery Wellington.
On Tuesday 7 August from 5:30 – 7pm come to City Gallery Wellington for a live performance by the
Michelangelo Pistoletto Band. The evening will also include a selection of films from Artists’ Film
International; an ongoing collaborative project showcasing international artists working with film, video and
animation as selected by 12 partner organisations around the world. There will also be a cash bar and a live
performance by local artists Samin Son and musician Matt Brennan, performing together as Fiends.
After MPB have played Fiends will give a response in the North Programme space.
Waikato Museum on Thursday 8th
St Paul Street Gallery , Auckland Friday 10th
Dunedin Public Art Gallery on Saturday 11th.
MPB on Youtube:
‘Heart of Korea’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdgeSzo0MiE&feature=player_embedded
‘Forecasting’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqHfdrk4EoA&feature=related
For more information please contact Anna Dean: anna.dean@wmt.org.nz, DD: 04 801 4258 (Mondays,
Wednesdays and Fridays) or on 021 152 7232 Winter Season, City Gallery Wellington, 22 June- 7 October 2012, Free Entry
www.citygallery.org.nz