First look: Perpetual Spring "The Climate-Correcting Machine"

ARCHITECTURE AND HERITAGE: UNEARTHING FUTURE

SEPTEMBER 2019 TO APRIL 2020

Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Seoul, South Korea

That a revolution prefers fair weather is an assertion that can be historically attested first with the Spring of Nations, the Prague Spring and more recently, the Arab Spring. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the MMCA Seoul coinciding with the centennial birth of the establishment of the Korean Provisional Government in resistance to Japanese occupation in 1919 in Shanghai, Perpetual Spring was specially commissioned for the exhibition "Architecture and Heritage: Unearthing Future" with two main objectives: 1. To awaken dormant public consciousness to the potential of social activism and political agency, and 2. to explore the possibilities of an alternative technology that could, by virtue of collective ownership, become an agent for the resolution of problems affecting us all through the vehicle of radical public participation.

Founded on the idea that creating a true space of free public expression is already a radical way of questioning the ways in which the city is reproduced and expanded today, the “Climate-Correcting Machine” opened to the public in September 2019, presenting both a platform for awareness and an invitation to action. Offering a place of comfort during days of severe weather, it featured a free open-access venue for public use: for public lectures, poetry readings, theater, music, discussion groups of all kinds, book club sessions, etc. Anyone interested was invited to sign up online to use the space during open museum hours at www.perpetualspring.org, an ongoing website which featured realtime freezeframe viewing of the urban public space and pavilion.