Created by the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA) in 2021, Watch and Chill is the world’s first subscription-based streaming platform for contemporary art, where audiences from around the globe can freely access the media collections of major international art institutions. The second season, Watch and Chill 2.0: Streaming Senses, is online now through December 2022.
Staged as part of a three-year plan, four Asian museums (MMCA, MCAD in Manila, MAIIAM in Chiang Mai, and M+ in Hong Kong) collaborated on the inaugural edition of Watch and Chill last year. Now, the platform has expanded to partners in Europe and the SWANA region: ArkDes, the Swedish Centre for Architecture and Design, and Sharjah Art Foundation in the United Arab Emirates. Jihoi Lee, Hoor Al Qasimi, and James Taylor-Foster are the curators.
Titled Streaming Senses, season two of Watch and Chill examines how systems of sensing translate into digital environments. With subthemes like “Optical Tactility,” “Calibrated Projection,” “Trance, Cross, Move,” and “Bits of the Spirit,” both the online platform and a related in-person exhibition at MMCA in Seoul ponder the many facets of human sensoria vis-à-vis today’s technology, through works that manifest synesthetic effects beyond digital screens.
Basma Al Sharif, An Jungju & Jun Sojung, ASMRctica, BARE, Ali Cherri, Ahmad Ghossein, Kim Ayoung, Sylbee Kim, Kim Woonghyun, Lee Eunhee, Maha Maamoun, Simon C. Niquille / Technoflesh, Yuri Pattison, Jenna Sutela, Sharif Waked, Wang & Söderström, Andreas Wannerstedt, and Yeom Ji Hye are the participating artists, designers, and creators from Korea, Europe, and West Asia.
To learn more and start streaming, visit watchandchill.kr/en.
