Artist Wanho Seo leading a private exhibition tour.
The Korean Cultural Center Washington, D.C. on Feb. 3 held an opening ceremony for its newest exhibition Placeless Places. Deputy Chief of Mission of the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in the USA Choon-goo Kim and the D.C. Mayor's Office on Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs (MOAPIA) joined to launch the exhibition.
The event began with congratulatory remarks by Director Junghoon Kim of the Korean Cultural Center Washington, D.C., Deputy Chief Kim, Director of the MOAPIA Ben de Guzman. After the remarks, the artists lead respective exhibition tours and introduced their featured work.
Director of the Korean Cultural Center Junghoon Kim (left) and director of the Mayor's Office on Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs Ben de Guzman (right).
Placeless Places is a new group exhibition of visual art from Korea that investigates the new ways in which we experience a sense of place—or lack thereof—in a world of ubiquitous remote communication, virtual events, and face-to-screen interactions. These contemporary works by emerging artists Wanho Seo, Seunghee You, and Eunji Choi created post-pandemic update a familiar concept of the 20th century: placelessness.
(From left to right) Director Junghoon Kim, Deputy Chief Choon-goo Kim, artist Eunji Choi, artist Wanho Seo, Director Ben de Guzman and staff members of MOAPIA.
Based on the idea that a place encompasses a certain human element that mere physical space lacks, Seo, You, and Choi each visualize the human experience when this sense of place is gone. The notion of placelessness, proposed by geographer Edward Relph in the 1970s and reinforced by decades of digitization, globalization, and now a global pandemic, is epitomized by traditional human meeting places like schools, offices, and cultural venues becoming socially distanced—sometimes permanently.
Placeless Places will remain on view from February 3 through March 29, 2023 (walk-in hours are 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., excluding 12 – 1 p.m., Monday – Friday).