Press release

Artist in Residence DJ Spooky to Screen Classic Korean Film Madame Freedom with Live Performance of Original Score and to Participate in a Related Talk
October 24 and 26, 2012

The first public event of The Met Reframed, the new Metropolitan Museum artist residency that in the 2012-13 season features Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky, is a screening of the classic 1956 Korean film Madame Freedom accompanied by a live performance by violinist Jennifer Kim and cellist Danielle Cho of an original score created in 2007 by Miller, on Friday, October 26, 2012, at 7:00 p.m. in the Met’s Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium.  The event will also be livestreamed over the Museum’s website (www.metmuseum.org).

Two days earlier, on Wednesday, October 24, at 6:00 p.m., Miller will discuss the film with Soyoung Lee, Associate Curator in the Museum’s Asian Art Department, in a Met Salon Series talk in the Bonnie J. Sacerdote Hall.

The Met Reframed, an unprecedented Metropolitan Museum artist residency, breaks new ground as a collaboration between artist and institution.  The Museum’s Limor Tomer, General Manager of Concerts & Lectures, conceived this year-long association as an opportunity to engage the curiosity and talents of the composer, multimedia artist, and writer Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid with the extensive artistic and human resources of the Museum, to create both new work and dialogues between artists, scholars, curators, and museum visitors.

Madame Freedom was one of the defining films of the “Golden Era” of Korean cinema in the 1950s. Based on a serialized novel that itself was an adaptation of Jung Bi-suk’s controversial 1954 novel, Madame Freedom tells the story of the wife of a professor who gradually and tentatively ventures outside the home to experience work, romance, and emancipation before the film’s tragic end.

Yeonghwa! That’s the Korean name for cinema!  From its origins in the roots of post-colonial Asia, Korean cinema has been one of the most influential factors of culture in Asia throughout the 20th and now 21st century,” says Paul Miller.  “Madame Freedom is where so many of today's themes in current film culture gained a foothold in this complex society. Madame Freedom is the touchstone for many themes we see in today's Gangnam-style culture,” a reference to the popular term for the trendy, affluent lifestyle of the Gangnam district in Seoul.

In 2007, Paul Miller was commissioned by Art Center Nabi in Seoul, Korea, and the Korean American Film Festival in New York to re-score Madame Freedom.  As he explains, “In the 1950s, Korea went through a drastic modernization process. After the Korean War ended, South Korea was firmly embedded in a Western cultural sphere, families were put into radically unexpected contexts, and the rise of independent women changed the face of society. The film was viewed as a metaphor of the harmful westernization of all traditions in postwar Korea....”

Miller’s score for violin and cello evokes jazz nightclubs of the 21st century, and his use of electronic music enhances the dynamic tensions in the story and foregrounds the visual rhythm of the film’s editing. Miller’s score evokes the uneasy tensions between classic cinematic storytelling and the 21st-century techniques of digital media composition in collision with Madame Freedom’s depiction of consumerist desire in a rapidly modernizing country. Read more:   www.djspooky.com/art/film_madame_freedom.php

In the related Met Salon Series talk, “Making Madame Freedom,” Paul Miller and Soyoung Lee explore the film’s graphic design, cultural hybridity, and the fluorescence that occurs when cultures collide. 

The Met Reframed: DJ Spooky in Residence
When speaking at the press conference announcing the first season of Met Museum Presents, the Museum’s newly renamed series of performances and talks of which The Met Reframed is a centerpiece, Paul Miller put it this way: “The role of the museum as preserving history vs. the idea of the artist as someone who interrogates history is going to be one of the themes for the residency.  We’ll be playing with this idea of playfulness in its own right, and above all thinking about applying this notion of musicality to the physical space of the museum...reframing the idea of what a museum does to art.”

From October 2012 through June 2013, Paul Miller will engage with a wide variety of audiences at the Met.  In addition to headlining five major performances, he will host events for audiences including New York City public school teachers, artists, Met Museum curators and educators, and the general public.  Among the performance events are a newly commissioned work inspired by and incorporating images from the upcoming exhibition Photography and the American Civil War; a concert inspired by Oceania’s musical legacy; a performance of DJ Spooky’s original re-score to the Korean film Madame Freedom with a film screening; and a participatory concert using DJ Spooky’s iPhone/iPad app.  Read the press release for details about the residency.

Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid is a composer, multimedia artist, writer, and DJ.  His recorded output includes remixes of music ranging from Wu-Tang Clan, Metallica, and Bob Marley to classical/new music legends Steve Reich and the Kronos Quartet, and he has DJ’ed major festivals including Bonnaroo and Power to the Peaceful.  His work as a media artist has been featured at the Whitney Biennial, Venice Biennial, and Miami/Art Basel; and his first collection of essays, Rhythm Science, was released by MIT Press in 2004, followed by Sound Unbound, an anthology of writings on electronic music and digital media (MIT Press, 2008).  www.djspooky.com

The Met Reframed is made possible by Marianna Sackler.

Met Museum Presents, the Metropolitan Museum’s series of performances and talks, offers interpretations of and reflections on the Museum’s collection, special exhibitions, and tradition through the work of some of today’s most celebrated composers and performing artists.

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Wednesday, October 24, 2012, at 6:00 p.m. in the Bonnie J. Sacerdote Lecture Hall
Met Salon Series
“Making Madame Freedom” with Paul Miller and Soyoung Lee
The Met Reframed is made possible by Marianna Sackler.
This event is supported by The Giorgio S. Sacerdote Fund.
Tickets:  $30 (includes refreshments)

Friday, October 26, 2012, at 7:00 p.m. in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
Madame Freedom – Film screening with live performance of an original score
by Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky
Featured performers:  Jennifer Kim, violin; Danielle Cho, cello
The Met Reframed is made possible by Marianna Sackler.
Tickets:  $30
A live stream of the event will be made available on the Museum’s website; check the event page for details.

* For tickets, visit www.metmuseum.org/tickets or call 212-570-3949.
* Tickets are also available at the Great Hall Box Office, which is open Tuesday-Saturday 10-4:30 and Sunday noon-5:00.
* Tickets include admission to the Museum on day of performance.
* 30 & Under Rush:  $15 tickets for ticket buyers 30 years and younger, with proof of age, the day of the event (subject to availability). For more information, visit
www.metmuseum.org/tickets, call 212-570-3949, or visit the box office.
* Bring the Kids!:  $1 tickets for children (ages 7-16) when accompanied by an adult with a full-price ticket (subject to availability).  For more information, visit
www.metmuseum.org/tickets, call 212-570-3949, or visit the box office.

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September 27, 2012

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