The SeMA Omnibus is a largescale collection-based exhibition presented at the main branch and three branches of the Seoul Museum of Art under the theme of the museum’s 2024 institutional agenda, “connection.” The exhibition SeMA Omnibus: I Want to Love Us, at the Buk-Seoul Museum of Art, reflects the diverse stories of minorities that cannot be reduced to a collective narrative and envisions a new community connected by individuals who are all unique in their own right.
This exhibition is focused on social minorities oppressed and/or discriminated against due to various reasons, such as race, nationality, gender, age, physical condition, sexual orientation, sociocultural environment, and/or economic status. In any highly competitive neoliberal society, the problems faced by minorities are often treated as secondary or not recognized as problems at all, and attempts at collectivization frequently fall apart. On the other hand, even when minorities are collectivized through social welfare policies or collectivized to assert their rightful place in society, individual lives are overlooked, and only the aspects of the collective identity that society expects are reduced to “a single story.” Minorities need collectivization to eliminate oppression and discrimination, but they face the paradox in which individual diversity is erased during the process of unification in and among minority groups. This exhibition aims to demonstrate ways to include the diversity of individuals without collectivizing minorities. Through art, it seeks ways for vulnerable individuals to affirm themselves and find love for the “us” composed of individuals with unique bodies and minds. Instead of categorizing the works by specific identities, the exhibition focuses on the shared experiences of social minorities. Furthermore, it explores the possibility of individuals uniting while respecting each other's diversity.
* The title of this exhibition is borrowed from the book Minor Feelings, with permission from Cathy Park Hong and Jeff Chang.
[Image Description]
Oksun Kim, No Direction Home_Serah's Family, 2010, SeMA Collection.
In a home decorated with light brown wood, four family members are positioned around a wooden display cabinet filled with various family memorabilia and photographs, all facing the camera. The scene includes a middle-aged man with thinning gray hair, standing sideways in the kitchen area to the left of the frame. In front of the display cabinet, three women―middle-aged, a child, and an older adult―are seated on wooden chairs, facing directly towards the camera. Excluding a young girl with dark brown bobbed hair, the remaining figures exhibit exotic facial features. The expressions of the middle-aged woman with curly brown hair and the older woman with gray, curly hair are characterized by subtle smiles. In contrast, the middle-aged man’s gaze and the young girl’s indifferent expression create a discordant and strikingly different visual dynamic in the image.
[Accessibility Information]
· We have designated parking spaces and elevators for disabled visitors, as well as a nursing room.
· Wheelchairs are available to borrow at the information desk on the first floor. All exhibition spaces are wheelchair accessible.
· Some of the exhibited works are accompanied by audio and subtitle descriptions, and tactile models.
· Text interpretations are provided for some public programs.
