The Korean Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) is one of the world’s most heavily militarised border, located between South and North Korea. On the occasion of the opening of an exhibition at the Korean Cultural Centre UK (KCCUK), titled Negotiating Borders, which incorporates contemporary art practices that offer unique insights into the political and historical complexities of the DMZ, curators Nikolaus Hirsch and Kyong Park will discuss art historical and architectural significance of the DMZ based on their own experience of curating exhibitions on the DMZ.
Nikolaus Hirsch co-curated the Real DMZ Project 2014 with Sunjung Kim. Kyong Park together with Cathleen Crabb curated the Project DMZ exhibition at the Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York in November 1988. Both of them have been closely engaged with the Real DMZ Project, a contemporary art project based on research conducted on the DMZ.
The event will be followed by a drinks reception.
Nikolaus Hirsch is a Frankfurt-based architect and co-founder of e-flux architecture. He was the director of Städelschule academy in Frankfurt (2010-2013) and previously taught at the Architectural Association in London, University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and at the Institute of Applied Theatre Studies at Giessen University. His projects include the award-winning Dresden Synagogue (2001) and a studio structure for Rirkrit Tiravanija’s The Land. Hirsch curated numerous exhibitions including Mengele´s Skull at Portikus Kunsthalle, Folly for the Gwangju Biennale (2014), the Real DMZ Project in Korea (2014), and Housing Question/Wohnungsfrage at the HKW in Berlin (2015). Hirsch is the author of the books On Boundaries (2007), Track 17 (2009), Institution Building (2009), and Folly (2013).
Kyong Park is Professor of Public Culture and Speculative Design in the Department of Visual Arts, University of California, San Diego. He was the Founding Director of Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York (1982–1998), the international Centre for Urban Ecology in Detroit (1998–2001), and the Centrala Foundation for Future Cities in Rotterdam (2005–2006). He was also a curator of the 1997 Gwangju Biennale and Artistic Director and Chief Curator of Anyang Public Art Project 2010 in Korea. He is the author of Urban Ecology: Detroit and Beyond (2005) and Imagining Eurasia: Visualizing Contemporary History (2019).
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Organised by Nayun Jang (The Courtauld Institute of Art) and Jaemin Cha (Korean Cultural Centre UK)
