White & White: Dialogue between Korea and Italy

The exhibition White & White: Dialogue between Korea and Italy presents a convergence of two cultures on the color white and the creative examination of it. As in the late ’50s, the works from the exhibition trace an imaginary, monochromatic line that connects the West and the East. White & White also offers a space for delving into the two cultures that are on the threshold of remarkable social changes.

Carlo Bilotti Museum – Orangery Villa Borghese Park hosts the exhibition, organized by the National Museum of Contemporary Art Korea, curated by Vittoria Biasi and the NMOCA, and promoted by Department of Cultural Affairs and Historical Center – Superintendent Capitolina. The selection of works is the result of a collaborative effort between Hyung-Min Chung, director of the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea, and Vittoria Biasi. Biasi’s research as an art historian and critic focuses on the monochrome white of the twentieth century.

The exposition began as a reflection on the different artistic and historical value of western avant-garde in relation to figuration and to the concept of void in Korean traditions. Aside from the traditional Korean aesthetics on white, the Korean scholars of art recognize the artistic movements of the West and Japan from the early 1950s and 1960s as an important influence on the Korean monochromatic tendencies of the 1970s, in which the Korean artists have found a way to incorporate the elements from the West and their local roots. White & White retraces this history and examines the connection among Italy’s Arte Povera, America’s Minimalism, and Japan’s Mono-ha.