AGARMON ENCYCLOPEDIA: LEAKED EDITION
MMCA X LG OLED Series 2025: TZUSOO
2025
Agarmon Encyclopedia: Leaked Edition comprises Agarmon, a sculptural installation, and The Eight Flesh Spirits, a two-channel video work. This work places sexuality, intimately connected to creation and birth, at the intersection of the digital ecosystem and the material world, interpreting it in the artist’s unique creative language. The exhibition contains TZUSOO’s personal narrative of her desire to become a mother and reflects today’s transitional age between digital and physical existence. Viewers are invited into the peculiar ecosystem built by
Agarmon and the spirits.
The Eight Spirits of Flesh
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TAE
Unlocked at MMCA Seoul
2025
GAN
Unlocked at MMCA Seoul
2025
GUN
Locked
LI
Locked
SON
Locked
JIN
Locked
GAM
Locked
GON
Locked
Director / TZUSOO
Music and Sound Design / Maarten Vos
3D Graphics Team / Lloyd Marquart, Zion König
Editing Assistant / Sohee Kim
The MMCA×LG OLED Series, making its debut this year as part of a collaboration between MMCA and LG Electronics, is a futuristic
project that goes beyond the intersection of digital and contemporary art to explore possibilities for expansion in visual art today.
The project aims to use technology as a medium to broaden the world that we can sense, and to share new artist narratives and emergent moments. The MMCA×LG OLED Series exhibits new works by a single artist, selected through recommendation and evaluation
by experts from the art world, in the Seoul Box, the central space at MMCA’s Seoul branch. The chosen artist’s works are designed to reflect the specific characteristics of the Seoul Box. By offering opportunities to artists with a deep understanding of space, originality
and a sense of experimentation, MMCA strives to create futuristic museum landscapes forged by art and technology together.
TZUSOO, selected in 2025 as the project’s inaugural artist, deftly captures the sensibilities and contemporary emotions of the digital
native generation, and has built an original visual language at the boundary of the cyber ecosystem and physical reality. In this exhibition,
the artist integrates her worldview, formed over a long period of time, and senses, offering a compelling illustration of the fundamental
topics of life, desire and endless circulation through technological media and material forms.
The exhibition title, Agarmon Encyclopedia: Leaked Edition, refers to a situation in which a worldview centered on Agarmon,
an organism created by the artist, has for some reason begun appearing in the human world. Seoul Box, located at the hub of MMCA Seoul’s exhibition halls, abandons its identity as a familiar venue, transforming into a strange yet organic space where life, extinction,
and rebirth intertwine. Within the Seoul Box, expanded into an ecosystem where a perpetual digital world meets sculptures that evolve
over time, viewers encounter female desires relating to the creation of life, cycles of nature, and the myriad emotions and energies
derived from these processes. The faithful color reproduction and 8K resolution of OLED displays form a powerful synergy with the aesthetic approach of the artist, who has constructed a virtuoso sculptural language using digital media. This sensual landscape, filling
the Seoul Box, questions the things that transcend technology and must be sensed by art: bodies, bonding, the power of regeneration,
and imperfect life (beautiful for its imperfection).
Agarmon
Agarmon is a sculptural work transferred from the digital world to material reality. Having put off
pregnancy and childbirth while living her chosen life as an artist, TZUSOO has adopted a
method of creating and caring for an artwork as if it were her own child. Agarmon is made of agar,
a derivative of seaweed, and moss. The artist has also designed the Agarmon Incubator for
Agarmon. The incubator creates a living environment for Agarmon by regulating water, humidity
and lighting levels, while maintaining conditions that allow moss to grow. The continued growth
of the moss on Agarmon’s body as the latter slowly ages or decomposes with the passing of time
symbolizes cycles of life and rebirth. Amid this process of repeating extinction and creation,
Agarmon becomes a single, living ecosystem. Agarmon was born of condensed sexual energy that
has not led to fertilization and childbirth. In a society where having children has become optional
rather than compulsory, the sexual energy once oriented solely toward the creation of life no longer
flows in a single direction but is dispersed and divided into various forms.
The Eight Spirits of Flesh
The Eight Spirits of Flesh—TAE and The Eight Spirits of Flesh—GAN are video installations in which digital
creatures are shown on huge two-channel screens. Based on a theme of sexuality that touches on the
fundamental desire to create life, the works explore the forms that creative energy can take in the digital world.
These works reveal a different aspect of Agarmon’s world. This world is inhabited by eight spirits that
control the Eight Trigrams; each spirit is in charge of a different direction, building its own order amid disordered
and dispersed sexual energy. The spirits possess different senses and sexual characteristics creating
unstable dynamics and subtle harmonies as they collide and intersect. The two screens in the Seoul Box are
arranged in the south and north of the space, respectively, functioning as portals that awaken Tae and Gan,
two of the eight spirits. The other six spirits—Geon, Gon, Gam, Son, Jin and Ri—remain asleep. Tae, featured
in this work, is the spirit of illness, and appears with a body covered in scars and piercings. Gan’s three
heads symbolize three sexualities: normality, queerness and femininity. But among these, only normality appears
complete, while the others are depicted in distorted or incomplete forms. This also functions as a device for
visualizing societal norms and biases regarding sexuality. The two spirits, while possessing different roles and
tendencies, cross between the two screens, creating a single narrative as they intersect. Viewers following
this interaction experience complex sensations on the boundaries of order and chaos, oppression and desire,
and the real and the digital.
Photograph by Hong Cheolki, Image provided by MMCA
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Agarmon Encyclopedia: Leaked Edition
Ver. August 1, 2025
Agarmon Institute
[1] The Agarmon World
• The Agarmon World is created by the accumulation of all sexual energy that does not lead to fertilization and pregnancy.
[2] Agarmon
• Agarmon is born in the moment of orgasm.
• Orgasmic energy explodes outward and is concentrated, resulting in the birth of an Agarmon.
• Agarmon began to appear in the human world in 2023. The researchers who studied the Agarmon World cared for the unexpected Agarmon that emerged on Earth and documented their findings on the leakage of the Agarmon World.
• The Agarmon World had remained veiled throughout humanity’s long history of essential propagation activities. However, with the exponential increase of sexual activity unrelated to reproduction (such as protected sex, same-sex sexual activity, and masturbation) in the modern and contemporary age, it is believed that the Agarmon World has expanded rapidly and is now oversaturated.
• Since Earth’s living environment is nothing like that of the Agarmon World, researchers have devised incubators that reflect the biological characteristics of each entity.
• Agarmon appearance evolves in a manner that reflects sexual fetishes and libido.
• Agarmon bodies and moss are symbiotic. Like human hair, moss does more than simply fulfill a biological necessity— it serves as a decorative element.
• The Agarmon life cycle is hard to determine at the moment. The Agarmon body is the cleanest and freshest in appearance at the time of its emergence. Although it may display signs of aging such as specks or spots, dry skin, and creases over time, the moss that lives on Agarmon continues to grow or dry with them, depending on the conditions of the external environment.
• Some Agarmon enter a state of dormancy. Dormant Agarmon show slow biological reactions, but evolution is still witnessed.
• The consent of at least two researchers is required to deem an Agarmon that has completely ceased biological reactions “dead.”
✹ Fun Facts
– Agarmon bodies are composed of a material called agar in English.
– In German, it is agar agar.
– The Korean word aga means baby.
[3] Agarmon Specimen Records
※ Specimen number: Assigned in the order of appearance
※ Current state and observation records: As of August 1, 2025
[3-1] Agarmon 1
• Sighting: Kronenstraße 7, Stuttgart, Germany (September 15, 2023)
• Dimensions: W190×H190×D202 mm
• Weight: 1,050 g
• Composition: Agar, moss [Mniaceae, Fissidentaceae, Hypnales (feather moss)]
• Biological Characteristics
– It absorbs water through the opening at the lower part of the body.
– It maintains a certain level of moisture by secreting water that moves through tubular organs to the surface of its body through connected protrusions.
– The specimen’s physiological responses appeared to stabilize when placed in an incubated environment with the floating water moss that was discovered with it.
• Observation Notes
– Multiple spots appeared with aging; It became dormant with the degeneration of its protrusions.
– The Agarmon’s body was retained and moss grew in the enclosed incubator developed by a researcher at the Independent Garden, and signs of evolution were observed.
• Current State: Under protection (Independent Garden, Leipzig, Germany)
[3-2] Agarmon 2
• Sighting: 21 Kuhlungerstraße, Berlin, Germany (November 5, 2023); Transferred to sangheeut in Haebangchon, Seoul, South Korea for the purpose of care (December 8, 2023)
• Dimensions: W140×H105×D300 mm
• Weight: 970 g
• Composition: Agar, moss (Mniaceae and other pieces of various moss species)
• Biological Characteristics
– It reacts sensitively to its surrounding environment and does not have its own internal moisture-control system.
– It is dependent on the microclimate near water and thus evolves in a flat shape.
– Installation of a moisture-supplying device in the incubator is recommended in the Earth environment.
– The specimen’s physiological responses appeared to stabilize when placed in an incubated environment with the floating water moss that was discovered with it.
• Observation Notes
– It is the only Agarmon that died among those sighted.
– Imbalance of moisture, temperature, and amount of sunlight, as well as the environmental changes and physical stress caused by air transport, are assumed to be the main causes of degeneration and death.
– The body turned yellow with the loss of water and aged gradually, appearing similar to the skin of elderly human or elbow area.
– The moss on the surface of the Agarmon completely dried out after the absorption of nutrients was interrupted, and all physiological responses ceased.
– Determined dead by Junho Lee and put to rest.
• Current State: Dead (Laid to rest at Gugksabong in Bongcheondong, Seoul, 2023)
[3-3] Agarmon 3
• Sighting: Ocnele Mari Salt Mine, Romania (September 6, 2024)
• Dimensions: W160×H104×D90 mm
• Weight: 450 g
• Composition: Basalt, moss (feather moss), bolt, nut, dome nut
• Biological Characteristics
– The degeneration of the hydration system was observed.
– Human-derived parts such as bolt and nut compose the Agarmon body, but what led to its hybridization is unknown.
– In comparison with the agar type, the basalt type shows less frequent physiological responses, but it is also less sensitive to environmental changes.
• Observation Notes
– The Agarmon showed a stable physiological response when its degenerated hydration system was replaced with an artificial tube.
– Moss grows thinly toward the top at 100% humidity.
– The salt mine where it was discovered had moderate humidity and temperature but inadequate sunlight, so higher than 2,000lux lighting is recommended in the incubator.
• Current State: Under protection (Garden of Mr. and Mrs. Bojenoiu [SC2] in Craiova, Romania)
[3-4] Agarmon 4
• Sighting: Ocnele Mari Salt Mine, Romania (September 6, 2024)
• Dimensions: W150×H108×D94 mm
• Weight: 600 g
• Composition: Basalt, moss (feather moss), bolt, two nuts
• Biological Characteristics
– It is presumed to be the same species as Agarmon 3.
• Current State: Under protection (Garden of Mr. and Mrs. Bojenoiu in Craiova, Romania)
[3-5] Agarmon 5
• Sighting: National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea (August 1, 2025)
• Dimensions: W250×H209×D156 mm
• Weight: 856 g
• Composition: Agar, moss
• Biological Characteristics: ?
• Current State: Under protection and observation
[4] The Eight Spirits of Flesh
• The order of the Agarmon World is managed by eight spirits.
• The eight spirits are known as GUN (乾), TAE (兌), LI (離), JIN (震), SON (巽), GAM (坎), GAN (艮), and GON (坤), identical to the symbolic system of Palgwae (Eight Triagrams) related to the East Asian cosmological concept of yeok (易, or yi, in Chinese).
• Each spirit presides over one of the eight cardinal and ordinal directions: East, Northeast, North, Northwest, West, Southwest, South, and Southeast.
• The spirits remain dormant on islands located in their respective cardinal and ordinal directions and reveal themselves in situations of ???????????, when portals open.
• Each spirit has a unique personality and characteristic. Interactions are observed when two or more spirits awaken at the same time. More than three spirits waking at the same time has yet to be witnessed, but ?????????????????.
• The direct relationship between the eight spirits and the Agarmon has yet to be identified, but they are similar in that the evolution of their physical structures reflects libido and fetishes.
• The spirits that have been sighted thus far all have long tentacles, and the function of the tentacles is presumed as ????????????.
[4-1] Spirit GAN
• Direction: South
• Responsibility: Confused sexual identity
• First Sighting: August 1, 2025, Seoul
• Characteristics
– Three characteristics coexist in one body, and the spirit is responsible for confused sexual identity. – It is divided into head, body, and tail.
– Only one of its three heads is intact, and although the other two have been severed, all three have will.
– The intact head represents cisnormativity, the second queerness, and the third femininity.
– The head that represents cisnormativity usually senses the world and leads the body, and it is active and extroverted.
– An organ presumed to be a mouth developed inside the third head that has been cut off.
– Blood vessel-like tubes are visible through the translucent skin.
– Two holes connect through the body.
– Sounds of crying are detected.
• Type of Hair: ????????????
• Tentacle Composition: Internal organs, fat
• Parts Presumed of Human Origin: Dented bolt, nut, handle
[4-2] Spirit TAE
• Direction: Northeast
• Responsibility: Sexually transmitted diseases and wounds
• First Sighting: August 1, 2025, Seoul
• Characteristics
– The entire body is covered in scars, and the spirit is responsible for sexually transmitted diseases and wounds.
– It is divided into head, body, and tail.
– It is anxious and sensitive, but it is also very curious.
– Its entire surface secretes mucus, and the color and viscosity of the mucus changes with emotions.
• Type of Hair: ????????????
• Tentacle Composition: Urethra
• Parts Presumed of Human Origin: Eye bolt, hook bolt
[4-3] Spirit ???????
(…)
©2025 Jusung Hyung
© 2025 Commissioned by MMCA X LG OLED
Special and ultimate thanks to Blender Foundation