DMZ art show reframes Korea's divided landscape

PAJU, Gyeonggi Province — Nine chairs stand in a loose circle, but none offers a proper place to sit. Some lack legs or backrests, while others have lost their seats.

For artist Ahn Kyu-chul, these broken objects capture the contradictions of life and shared conditions of loss on both sides of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). He dismantled eight intact chairs and created the last chair from the discarded pieces, leaving all nine unable to fulfill their purpose, holding on even though they are seemingly on the edge of collapse.

“I thought the absurd, irrational situation of breaking perfectly good chairs to make a ninth broken one resembled the DMZ,” Ahn said during a press walk-through, Monday. “It also conveys that people on both sides of the DMZ live in a state of incompleteness.”

“Nine Chairs” offers a starting point for “DMZ Open Exhibition: Staging,” which opened Monday at Camp Greaves and Imjingak Pyeonghwa Nuri in Paju, Gyeonggi Province. Jointly hosted by Gyeonggi Province and the city of Paju, the exhibition presents 26 works by 14 Korean and international artists.

Rather than treating the border solely as a symbol of confrontation, the exhibition examines relationships among people, objects and other living beings shaped by division.

The setting makes those questions tangible.

Camp Greaves, about 2 kilometers south of the DMZ’s southern boundary and inside the Civilian Control Line, housed U.S. troops from 1953 to 2004. Its former military buildings have since become spaces for culture and art.

Here, aging tiles, metal fixtures and views of barbed wire through the windows become part of the encounter.

Artist Park Chan-kyong revisits the legacy of confrontation in “Black Box: Memory of the Cold War Images,” a photo exhibit recreated for the exhibition from work shown at his first solo show in 1997.

Photographs of Hollywood spies blend with scenes from around U.S. military bases and buried objects to appear alongside text, exploring how Cold War anxiety and anti-communist ideology entered everyday life.

“It is sad that a work I made 30 years ago still speaks to reality today. I hope the day comes when there is no longer any need to make work like this,” Park said.

Other artists approached the border through less familiar imagery.

In a former restroom, Yeon Jin-yeong combines uniforms, boots, latex and a bead-adorned urinal. Red light emerges from protective masks.

The installation connects military masculinity with “looksmaxxing,” a social media culture focused on maximizing physical attractiveness, juxtaposing collective discipline with individual self-presentation.

Lee Ye-eun’s “People of Baegyeon-ri” series turn to household belongings lent by residents of Tongilchon, a settlement inside the Civilian Control Line with a name that translates to “unification village.”

Her photographs document precarious towers of plastic containers, bowls and flowerpots. The objects bring residents into view through their everyday possessions rather than fences or military infrastructure, highlighting the precarious balance that exists between people.

North Korean defector artist Sun Mu imagines a different encounter in “Spring Outing,” depicting young people from both Koreas cooking and spending time together beside a river.

Sun Mu, who studied art in both Koreas, borrows the visual language of North Korean propaganda — large flags, rosy-cheeked faces and bright, sharply defined colors — reframing it as an ordinary scene of shared life to ask what coexistence might look like after reunification.

The phrases “A joint walking event for students from North and South Korea” and “Let’s meet and have fun together!” appear on banners in the painting, fluttering around the youth of future generations.

Curated by Art Sonje Center Director Kim Sun-jung, the exhibition takes its title from a concept associated with French philosopher Bruno Latour. “Staging” refers here to how beings and facts become visible through particular conditions and relationships.

“I hope this becomes an opportunity to see the DMZ beyond a symbol of division and conflict, as a dynamic place where humans and nonhumans, history and the present, relate to one another,” Kim said.

“DMZ Open Exhibition: Staging” runs through Nov. 29.