Jooyoung Lee, Silence, 2024/2025, Single-channel video, sound, vinyl print, 38 sec (loop), Installation variable ©Seoul Museum of Art

The Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) presents the special exhibition 《Talking Heads》 at its Seosomun Main Branch through July 6. This exhibition is part of SeMA’s annual thematic framework and explores various pathways for interpreting the museum’s 2025 institutional agenda, “Action.” The exhibition adopts an attitude toward “not-so-visible gestures,” not through binary oppositions such as center versus periphery, but through a polycentric and flexible approach.

Hyeree Ro, Falls Interview, 2022, Single-channel video, 28 min ©Seoul Museum of Art

Featuring 21 artists and collectives from six countries, the exhibition unfolds around five key themes: The Art Museum and the Institution: Between the Rigid and the Flexible, Slippery Language, Erased or Yet-to-Come Histories, Existing Without Presence, and Tracing Traces: Shells–Skin–Ashes. These themes do not strictly correspond to distinct spatial divisions within the exhibition; instead, they are interwoven to allow new contextual relationships to emerge between the works.

While reflecting on challenges within and beyond the museum, the exhibition aims to create a polyphonic and hybrid space of discourse, where the museum, artworks (and artists), and audiences intermingle. It does not remain confined to the format of a traditional “exhibition” but functions as a dynamic project in which exhibition and programming complement and evolve with each other over time.

Elina Vainio, The rights of things, 2018, hand-dyed batik on cotton, iron oxide, beeswax, steel pole, 320 x 330 cm ©Artist and HIAP. Photo: Doyun Kim

This exhibition introduces various interpretive elements designed to reveal previously unseen gestures and to broaden the audience’s viewing experience. These “exhibition devices” include handwritten texts directly inscribed on the walls, “word sculptures” conveying the artists’ voices, “audio (pairing) guides” that create a layered environment for viewing, and visual aids such as magnifying glasses to assist in appreciating the works.

The gestures initiated through the word sculptures will later expand into exhibition goods in the form of “word pouches,” and culminate in a publication titled “Word Collection,” compiling a diverse range of voices. Detailed schedules and information about related programs can be found on the Seoul Museum of Art’s official website.

Participating Artists: Donghwan Kam, GYUKJURO (Kim In-sun, Lee Eun-jae, Lim Ka-young), Kim Young Joo, Kim Eunseol, Hyeree Ro, Miwha Park, Minsun Lee, Yeesookyung, Eusung Lee, Jooyoung Lee, Leehaiminsun, IM Youngzoo, Chang-kon Lim, Jeon Bobae, Yeong Ja Jung, generalkunst, Elina Vainio, Au Sow Yee, Paulien Oltheten, Nora Turato, Dan Perjovschi