From prewar generation photographers who are now over 70 years old to young ones armed with digital equipment, the artists that participated in the trip represent the different memories and meanings of the war in Korean society today. The artists' pursued their individual interests by selecting their own subjects and choosing the time and place meanwhile receiving full support for their artistic expression from the Defense Ministry.
The fact that Korea is the only divided country in the world and it has been over twenty thousand days after the ceasefire has become a reality sunken in our routine life. Although this reality has sunken deep inside, at least we as Koreans should read the meaning of the reality as if we look into the bottom of clean water. It is likely that we do not hesitate to decide which team we will support in the World Cup games even though we do not recognize ourselves as Koreans all the time.

The exhibition『On The Line』consists of ten stories about the Korean War today perceived through the eyes of the participating artists. Their work examines the forms of the current state of war on the Korean peninsula while revealing the sociocultural and psychological impact of the border. They focus on the border not as the visual national boundary, but as the implicative line― caused by the Korean War, the most crucial event in the Korean History― between past and present, pain and beauty, division and reunification, isolation and harmony, desire and forbiddance, and finally Korea and the world.

What we need now is a psychological map that can show each of us what our war means to us, who we are fighting against, and how we can come out of it victorious and safe. Sixty years were long enough to change, diversify, and blur our values, but what is still evident is that the Korean War is a prerequisite for defining the identity of South Korea today. I hope that the stories imagined and interpreted by the ten artists will provide an occasion to discuss the importance and the various aspects of our perception of war.
A border can lie in anywhere, whereever our eyes and hearts may encounter.

Artist Participated

JOO Myung Duck, KANG Woon Gu, KOO Bon Chang, CHOI Kwang Ho, Lee Kap Chul, OH Hein Kuhn, KOH Myung Keun, Nanda, WON Seong Won, BACK Seung Woo