Afterall x MRes Exhibition Studies: From Ghost of Modernity to Spirit of the Ungovernable

Curator Hyunjin Kim will introduce Frequencies of Tradition, an exhibition she curated as part of research she has been conducting since 2014. Kim will discuss the works presented in the exhibition and the knowledge production that extends the understanding of tradition as a space of contestation and examines modernisation in Asia. Tradition is a significant part of daily lives in Asia, connecting generations and reverberating as a living archive of cultures across time. Tradition also retains and upholds patriarchy, authoritarianism, and obsolete customs. Through collective memories, spirituality, archival imagination, technological engagements, and alternative modes of empowerment, the works in the exhibition go beyond conventional notions of tradition. They examine how regional modernisation is entangled with the emergence of tradition, and where the violence of social conventions, nationalism, and the impact of such histories on the everyday manifest.

Hyunjin Kim is a curator and writer, living in Seoul. She curated History Has Failed Us, but No Matter, the Korean Pavilion exhibition at the 58th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, in 2019. As KADIST Lead Curator for Asia, Kim has led the three-year program Frequency of Tradition expanding from her long-term critical research on the complexity of entanglement among regional modernisation, tradition, and gender norms. She also served as Artistic Director of Incheon Art Platform (2021), Director of Arko Art Center, Seoul (2014–15), and co-curator of the 7th Gwangju Biennale (2008).

Her numerous exhibitions include Frequencies of Tradition (KADIST, SF, 2022, IAP Incheon, 2021, Guangdong Times Museum, Guangzhou, 2020), Reclamation, New Rocks, Stray Dogs, Birds, and Acoustic of the Garden (Incheon Art Platform, Incheon, 2021), 2 or 3 Tigers (Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, 2017), Movement, Contingency, and Community (Gallery27, Kaywon University of Art & Design, 2007), and Plug-In #3-Undeclared Crowd (Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, 2006).