GROUP EXHIBITION

Prelude: With a Heart Singing Stars marks the 80th anniversary of Korea’s independence, showcasing selected works from the museum’s collection and GanaArt Collection, under the key themes of Korea’s independence movement, the Korean War, the national division in postwar Korea, and the vision of peaceful coexistence. A total of 21 works—including paintings, photographs, installations, sculptures, media, prints, and Korean paintings—are on display, featuring 7 pieces from the GanaArt Collection and 14 from SeMA collection.

The exhibition is composed of four parts. Artworks in this exhibition are presented alongside poems written by Yun Dong-ju, Ku Sang, and Park Pong-u, capturing the 1940s and 1950s spirit of resistance and perseverance to vividly convey the resonance of the times.

1. When the Winter Passes and Spring Reaches My Star (Yun Dong- ju, Prelude) focuses on the 35-year-long suffering of the Korean people and the trajectory of the nation’s independence movement, which paved the way to Korea’s liberation. Here, Son Jang Sup reflects criticism of the liquidation of colonial remnants; Kim In Soon addresses the issue of Japanese military comfort women with survivor Kang Soon-ae’s tragic story as the medium; and Kim Jung Heun highlights the grievous life and death of forced laborers on Hashima Island (nicknamed Battleship Island).

2. With the Same Hands That Pulled the Trigger (Ku Sang, Poem of the Wrecked·8―Before the Enemy Soldiers’ Burial Ground) discusses the Korean War, a tragic fratricide in which people of one nation turned their guns on each other for reasons of ideology. In Part 2 of the exhibition, Kwun Sun-cheol artistically sublimates the grief of losing his father to the war, and Song Chang visualizes his experience of unsettling times marked by ideological conflict.

3. Meanwhile the Sky Occupied by the Stars Forever Remains One (Park Pong-u, Armistice Line) features works that shed stereoscopic light on Korea’s division, which continues to substantially impact the lives of Koreans. This section presents paintings by Son Jang Sup and Shin Hak-cheul, which reflect an earnest wish for unification; videos by Shin Mi Jung and Im Heung-soon, which follow the personal narratives of a North Korean defector and a displaced war refugee; and works by Noh Suntag, Rho Jae Oon, Ryu In, Lee Yongbaek, and Ham Kyung Ah, which critically approach the various sociopolitical problems faced by the Korean Peninsula due to the circumstances of ceasefire.

4. Early Arrival of Future presents works that demonstrate the potential of art to transcend political and ideological disputes. The title of this section, ‘Early Arrival of Future,’ references the title of one of the works on view by Jun Sojung and is an expression used by North Korean defectors to refer to themselves, hopefully postulating the “future” as Korea’s unification. In this section, Lee Ung No’s work inspired by the May 18 Democratisation Movement of 1980 expands beyond its time and space to convey messages of anti-nuclear power, anti-war, and peace; Park Hee- Sun’s sculpture reflects the artist’s longing for Korea’s unification; Lee Sea Hyun’s landscape merges the scenery of North and South Korea onto a single canvas; and Jun Sojung’s work brings a futuristic collaboration between North and South Korean pianists into the present in anticipation of a peaceful, harmonious world.