Layered Medium: We ARE IN Open Circuits
Contemporary Art From Korea 1960s - Today
Manarat Al Saadiyat
16 May - 30 June
Open Daily From 10am - 8pm
Curated by Kyung-Hwan Yeo and Maya El Khalil
Exhibition design by Formafantasma
Exhibition design by Formafantasma
A landmark exhibition, showcasing works from the Seoul Museum of Art’s collection, tells the story of the radical Korean contemporary art scene and its legacy of material and conceptual combination, exchange, hybridity, and innovation. Building upon the exhibition SeMA Omnibus: At the End of the World Split Endlessly, a new contextual framing creates dynamic circuits across generations of artists, and between Seoul and Abu Dhabi. Moving through layered, intersecting mediums, the works shift from the intimate to the global, with perspectives on the past, present and future.
The exhibition begins with the immediate sensory experiences of the body, intersecting with social constructs of gender, nationality, and identity. From there it connects to cultural narratives of history and tradition before engaging with contemporary spatial realities of rapid urbanisation and precarious ecologies. Through juxtapositions and layering of media as both matter and atmosphere, the exhibition traverses the fluid boundaries of our existence in what Nam June Paik described as ‘open circuits’, where consciousness, technology and art create flows of connection and meaning.
The exhibition begins with the immediate sensory experiences of the body, intersecting with social constructs of gender, nationality, and identity. From there it connects to cultural narratives of history and tradition before engaging with contemporary spatial realities of rapid urbanisation and precarious ecologies. Through juxtapositions and layering of media as both matter and atmosphere, the exhibition traverses the fluid boundaries of our existence in what Nam June Paik described as ‘open circuits’, where consciousness, technology and art create flows of connection and meaning.
Virtual Exhibition
2
Institutions
7
Live Panels
48
Artworks
29
Artists
Public Programme Layered DiaLogues
Location: Multipurpose space within the exhibition area, Gallery S, Manarat Al Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi
Saturday, 14 June | 5pm
Panel discussion: Society as medium - Objects as Anchors: Material, Narrative, and Memory
Panel discussion: Society as medium - Objects as Anchors: Material, Narrative, and Memory
In collaboration with the Korean Cultural Center in the UAE.
Objects persist across time and space, becoming focal points around which communities, identities, and histories take shape. From traditional crafts and ritual items to incidental domestic bric-a-brac, objects can anchor deeply personal or collective narratives. Though objects are perceived as immutable, static and fixed, their stories never are. When gravitating around artefacts, culture is felt in material, tangible ways, yet generations and geographies will understand the same object differently. This subjective interdependence of material, memory, and narrative means that, while objects might travel, their precise meanings do not always move with them: what is sincerely felt in one place or time does not necessarily translate.
The Panel:
Rand Abdul Jabbar - Artist
Sojung Jun - Artist
Moderator:
Tina Sherwell - Co-Director of Masters of Fine Arts in Art and Media; Associate Arts Professor, New York University Abu Dhabi
Objects persist across time and space, becoming focal points around which communities, identities, and histories take shape. From traditional crafts and ritual items to incidental domestic bric-a-brac, objects can anchor deeply personal or collective narratives. Though objects are perceived as immutable, static and fixed, their stories never are. When gravitating around artefacts, culture is felt in material, tangible ways, yet generations and geographies will understand the same object differently. This subjective interdependence of material, memory, and narrative means that, while objects might travel, their precise meanings do not always move with them: what is sincerely felt in one place or time does not necessarily translate.
The Panel:
Rand Abdul Jabbar - Artist
Sojung Jun - Artist
Moderator:
Tina Sherwell - Co-Director of Masters of Fine Arts in Art and Media; Associate Arts Professor, New York University Abu Dhabi
Friday, 20 June | 5pm
Panel discussion: Space as medium - In/Visible City
Panel discussion: Space as medium - In/Visible City
In collaboration with the Korean Cultural Center in the UAE.
The city in the city: what lies beneath and within the visible urban environment? This panel unearths the hidden infrastructures – both material and social – that orchestrate urban life and social relations. Moving beyond visible architectural forms, participants consider how infrastructure operates as both geopolitical script and social choreography, examining how these systems emerge from, and reinforce, particular forms of social organisation. Conceiving the city as a layered topography of speculative, real, and imagined mediums, ranging from master plans to maintenance routines, the discussion focuses on Gulf urbanism and the cultural logic embedded in its invisible systems.
The Panel:
Minouk Lim - Artist
Wael Al Awar - Principal Architect / Founding Partner waiwai
Moderator:
Salem AlSuwaidi - Writer and curator
The city in the city: what lies beneath and within the visible urban environment? This panel unearths the hidden infrastructures – both material and social – that orchestrate urban life and social relations. Moving beyond visible architectural forms, participants consider how infrastructure operates as both geopolitical script and social choreography, examining how these systems emerge from, and reinforce, particular forms of social organisation. Conceiving the city as a layered topography of speculative, real, and imagined mediums, ranging from master plans to maintenance routines, the discussion focuses on Gulf urbanism and the cultural logic embedded in its invisible systems.
The Panel:
Minouk Lim - Artist
Wael Al Awar - Principal Architect / Founding Partner waiwai
Moderator:
Salem AlSuwaidi - Writer and curator
Friday, 16 May | 6pm - 7pm
Curatorial discussion: Layered Medium: We Are in Open Circuits
Curatorial discussion: Layered Medium: We Are in Open Circuits
This discussion brings together co-curators Kyung-hwan Yeo and Maya El Khalil in conversation with participating artists Byungjun Kwon and Goen Choi. The curators will outline the conceptual questions that guided the exhibition – from initial encounters in Seoul to the development and discovery of new resonances in Abu Dhabi. The conversation will explore thematic frameworks and consider how the universal ideas of body, society, and space serve as access points into five decades of complex and innovative artistic practice. Kwon and Choi, whose works appear in the Space as Medium section, offer radically different approaches to space, perception, and infrastructure, reflecting the exhibition’s exploration of layered meaning and open circuits.
Kyung-hwan Yeo, Co-curator
Maya El Khalil, Co-curator
Byungjun Kwon, artist
Choi Goen, artist
Kyung-hwan Yeo, Co-curator
Maya El Khalil, Co-curator
Byungjun Kwon, artist
Choi Goen, artist
Friday, 16 May | 6:15pm - 7:15pm
Panel Discussion: Exhibition Design as Medium
Panel Discussion: Exhibition Design as Medium
Designers Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin, co-founders of the design studio Formafantasma, join co-curators Kyung-hwan Yeo and Maya El Khalil to discuss how exhibition design shapes the viewer’s encounter with art. Reflecting on their approach to spatial design and the aesthetic language developed for Layered Medium: We Are in Open Circuits, the conversation explores how curatorial and design decisions together influence audience perception — not only of individual works, but of the relationships and rhythms that unfold between them. Offering insights into the interdependence of artworks, space, and audience, the conversation will reveal exhibition design itself as a crucial medium of cultural translation.
Saturday, 17 May | 5pm - 5:30pm
Talk: Chris Dercon in conversation with co-curators Kyung-hwan Yeo & Maya El Khalil
Talk: Chris Dercon in conversation with co-curators Kyung-hwan Yeo & Maya El Khalil
Chris Dercon, Director of the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain and former Director of Tate Modern (2011–2016), joins co-curators Kyung-hwan Yeo and Maya El Khalil to discuss his 1984 documentary film Nam June Paik. Drawing on his early collaboration with the pioneering media artist, Dercon reflects on the challenges of representing Paik’s radically experimental practice through film, and considers the broader historical context of media art during a pivotal moment in its development.
Saturday, 17 May | 5:30pm - 7:30pm
Film screening: Nam June Paik: Moon Is The Oldest TV, 2023
Film screening: Nam June Paik: Moon Is The Oldest TV, 2023
Featuring a captivating showcase of his work, this documentary profiles the career of Nam June Paik and his pioneering contributions to video art. Directed by Amanda Kim.
Thursday, 29 May | 6pm
Panel discussion: Body as medium InterFACES: Skin/Screen
Panel discussion: Body as medium InterFACES: Skin/Screen
In collaboration with the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence.
What if we understood the virtual and the physical as a continuum? This panel discussion explores how interfaces - from skin to canvas to screen - mediate sensory experiences and shape our relation to the world. The body, as the seat of emotion and our most primal tool for communication, is often seen as the closest link to the self whereas virtual boundaries are regarded as disembodied surfaces and sites of projection. Yet, as movements are translated into mediated forms, and digital affects are assimilated into involuntary gestures, how to we distinguish between physical and virtual? From body to image, artists have long treated surfaces as interfaces for expression and interaction. Whether through painting, performance, or pixels, they engage with questions of presence, bodily depiction, and self-representation. Bringing together diverse practitioners, this panel considers how our current era of hyperconnectivity has intensified and accelerated the porosity between these sites of encounter, destabilising the limits of the body and challenging our understanding of presence, identity and self.
What if we understood the virtual and the physical as a continuum? This panel discussion explores how interfaces - from skin to canvas to screen - mediate sensory experiences and shape our relation to the world. The body, as the seat of emotion and our most primal tool for communication, is often seen as the closest link to the self whereas virtual boundaries are regarded as disembodied surfaces and sites of projection. Yet, as movements are translated into mediated forms, and digital affects are assimilated into involuntary gestures, how to we distinguish between physical and virtual? From body to image, artists have long treated surfaces as interfaces for expression and interaction. Whether through painting, performance, or pixels, they engage with questions of presence, bodily depiction, and self-representation. Bringing together diverse practitioners, this panel considers how our current era of hyperconnectivity has intensified and accelerated the porosity between these sites of encounter, destabilising the limits of the body and challenging our understanding of presence, identity and self.
Curatorial Statement
Layered Medium: We Are in Open Circuits presents media-based practices from Korea spanning the 1960s to the present, bringing together 48 works by 29 artists. Borrowing its title from a 1965 statement by visionary artist Nam June Paik – who foresaw the emergence of today’s interconnected world, the exhibition explore show Korean artists have used evolving technologies to respond to social transformation. From avant-garde experiments in video and performance to contemporary explorations in VR, robotics, and embroidery, these works reveal art’s mediating role amid rapid urbanisation and globalisation. As these pieces, including works from the collection of the Seoul Museum of Art, travel from Korea to the UAE, they enter new circuits of meaning, carrying traces of their origins while opening new perspectives in our present time and place.
The exhibition opens with pioneering works from the 1960s and 1970s, when Korean artists first began experimenting with new technologies amid dramatic social change. It then unfolds across three thematic sections, each exploring different dimensions of “medium” – understood both as physical materials and as modes of communication. The first considers the body as our most immediate point of contact with the world. The second explores society as a network of stories, memories, and inherited knowledge. The final section turns to space – urban, natural, and digital – examining how environments are shaped by globalisation and layered histories.
Across decades and disciplines, these works reveal how Korean artists have used technology to interpret, record, and reimagine their world.
The exhibition opens with pioneering works from the 1960s and 1970s, when Korean artists first began experimenting with new technologies amid dramatic social change. It then unfolds across three thematic sections, each exploring different dimensions of “medium” – understood both as physical materials and as modes of communication. The first considers the body as our most immediate point of contact with the world. The second explores society as a network of stories, memories, and inherited knowledge. The final section turns to space – urban, natural, and digital – examining how environments are shaped by globalisation and layered histories.
Across decades and disciplines, these works reveal how Korean artists have used technology to interpret, record, and reimagine their world.
The Curators
Kyung-hwan Yeo
Kyung-hwan Yeo has been a curator at the Seoul Museum of Art since 2013. Previously, she worked at the Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art (2007–2013), as a writer for the Digital Museum program on KBS (2002–2006),and as a reporter with Art in Culture, a monthly art magazine. She holds both a BA and MA in art theory from Hongik University, where her research focused on the relationship between art, photography, and technology as tools of social structure. She is currently pursuing a PhD in media art at Yonsei University and was a visiting researcher at San Francisco State University (SFSU) from 2019 to 2020.
Yeo has curated numerous exhibitions, including SeMA Omnibus: At the End of the World Split Endlessly (2024), Digital Promenade (2018), X: Korean Art in the Nineties(2016), North Korea Project (2015), and Low Technology(2014). She is also the co-author of Rendezvous Art: How Artwork Lives in the Digital Era (2004).
Yeo has curated numerous exhibitions, including SeMA Omnibus: At the End of the World Split Endlessly (2024), Digital Promenade (2018), X: Korean Art in the Nineties(2016), North Korea Project (2015), and Low Technology(2014). She is also the co-author of Rendezvous Art: How Artwork Lives in the Digital Era (2004).
Maya El Khalil
Maya El Khalil is a UK-based curator and art advisor with over two decades of experience shaping contemporary art scenes across the Gulf and Arab world. Her curatorial practice centres on socially engaged exhibitions and fostering sustainable art infrastructures. She holds an MA with distinction in Art and Politics from Goldsmiths College, University of London, an MBA and a BEng in Mechanical Engineering from the American University of Beirut.
She co-curated Manal Al Dowayan: Shifting Sands for the Saudi Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2024; In the Presence of Absence, Desert X Al Ula 2024; and curated Transparencies for Art Here 2023 at Louvre Abu Dhabi. In 2022, she curated ADMAF’s Portrait of a Nation: Beyond Narratives. Her recent research addresses environmental and climate challenges through multidisciplinary programmes such as I Love You, Urgently (21,39 Jeddah Arts, 2020), the digital platform Take Me to the River(2020–21), and Perceptible Rhythms / Alternative Temporalities (2022). As founding director of Athr Gallery(2009–2016), she played a key role in developing the Saudi contemporary art scene. El Khalil regularly serves on panels and advisory boards including the Prince Claus Fund and is currently Visual Arts Advisor to ADMAF.
She co-curated Manal Al Dowayan: Shifting Sands for the Saudi Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2024; In the Presence of Absence, Desert X Al Ula 2024; and curated Transparencies for Art Here 2023 at Louvre Abu Dhabi. In 2022, she curated ADMAF’s Portrait of a Nation: Beyond Narratives. Her recent research addresses environmental and climate challenges through multidisciplinary programmes such as I Love You, Urgently (21,39 Jeddah Arts, 2020), the digital platform Take Me to the River(2020–21), and Perceptible Rhythms / Alternative Temporalities (2022). As founding director of Athr Gallery(2009–2016), she played a key role in developing the Saudi contemporary art scene. El Khalil regularly serves on panels and advisory boards including the Prince Claus Fund and is currently Visual Arts Advisor to ADMAF.
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