Seoul, City Exploration is an exhibition glimpsing at Seoul’s past and transformed present from a macroscopic viewpoint, and examines change in society and values that reflect the viewpoint of the artist. All this through a wide variety of works such as Korean-style painting, Western-style painting, photography, video, and installation. The show takes a three-dimensional view of Seoul’s dynamism in the past and present and flow into the future. It also looks at Seoul from diverse standpoints as capital of a country, a civilized metropolis, and site for many people’s lives. The exhibition also sheds light on how Seoul has been reflected through art by many artists who have worked with the motif of urban space.

Section 1. Breath of the city
This section consists of paintings through which viewers may feel the breath of the city in scenes of Seoul seen through the eyes of mid-career and senior artists. These paintings reflect circumstances of the times and Seoul in lyric realism.

Section 2. The city of people
In this section the participating artists present Seoul as a base of fluid urban life. They reel off their individual experiences, such as unfamiliarity with Seoul itself; the reinterpretation of overlapped space; the toughness of urban life; the problems caused by pervasive individualism; leisure culture downtown; and daily life in industrialized urban space.

Section 3. Panorama of the city
This section consists of videos and installations exploring people in the city. These pieces, using cutting-edge media, trigger the viewer’s attention and are completed through their engagement.

Section 4. The hidden side of Seoul
This section brings together works featuring urban elements which change and disappear everyday due to the abnormal, rampant expansion of the city caused by urban development policy. In these pieces the participating artists listen carefully to voice of Seoul’s past, and look at them, taking a step back.