The Buk-Seoul Museum of Art invited artists Inhwan Oh and Seo Young Chang to headline the thirteenth edition of Title Match. Although their practices may appear distinct in subject and form, the two artists share a profound interest in artistically examining the conditions and attributes of human existence. At a time when many believe that the ability of cutting-edge technology to replace human creation has become increasingly pervasive, 2026 Title Match Inhwan Oh vs. Seo Young Chang: Human Error explores the essence of creativity that only humans can evoke.
The term Human Error in the exhibition title offers a provisional answer. Semantically speaking, “human error” refers to an error or mistake arising from the physical or mental imperfection of humans, and is most commonly used to identify the causes of accidents in industrial settings. The phrase reflects a mindset that treats human beings as components within a system and expects them to aspire to the same faultless perfection as machines. The same logic operates within social systems. Mainstream society has long defined those who fail to conform to its norms and standards as abnormal, seeking to exclude or correct them. In the process, diverse social minorities have been subjected to oppression. Yet as creators, humans have continually questioned what they are told they ought to be, challenged the distinction between the normal and the abnormal, and ventured beyond prescribed boundaries. Just as the Latin root of “error” denotes the physical act of wandering away from one’s proper place, this year’s Title Match exhibition focuses on the artist as a figure who rejects predetermined systems and intentionally generates errors, while also closely looking at the practices of these two artists as they seek not to conform to those very same systems but to disrupt and move beyond them.
Inhwan Oh attends to the human being as an active agent capable of intentionally generating errors within predetermined social systems. Under the theme “We’re Not One; Neither Am I,” he presents a wide range of works encompassing participatory projects, installations, videos, and photography in this exhibition. By questioning social conventions and common ideas, and by visualizing various identities that refuse to coalesce into a single form and are instead in constant flux, Oh seeks to create fissures in the collectivism of Korean society. Seo Young Chang, by contrast, considers the human being as an imperfect entity that experiences physical “errors” arising unexpectedly within the body. Her overarching theme for the exhibition is “Silicon Vanitas,” a combination of silicon―the principal material used in semiconductors―and vanitas, an artistic form concerned with the transience of life. Through video works and sculptural installations, Chang contrasts technology, which develops without apparent limit and beyond human control, with the human body, which ages, falls ill, and ultimately dies.
Both artists understand humans as being continually affected and transformed through relations with technology, the environment, and other humans, rather than a sovereign subject capable of perfectly controlling the world. For these artists, error is not a defect to be overcome, but a fundamental condition of human existence and a source of creation. In an age when cutting-edge technologies replace and extend human capacities, this exhibition invites us to reconsider what it is that makes us human.
Part 1 Inhwan Oh
We’re Not One; Neither Am I
Inhwan Oh has traced how the macro-level of society and institutions and the micro-level of individual life negotiate with and transform one another across specific contexts and relations of time and space. In doing so, he demonstrates how identity is not fixed but in a constant process of formation and change. In the exhibition, the title of Part 1, “We’re Not One; Neither Am I,” is taken from a work of the same name and serves as the theme for the entire section. Resisting a world that proclaims “We are one,” Oh believes that every member of a group possesses distinct individuality, and that even the individual self cannot be reduced to a single definition.
In fact, throughout the exhibition, Inhwan Oh focuses on humans as active agents who deliberately produce errors within rigid social systems. For the artist, identity is not a vehicle for confessing intimate personal experience, but a critical device for exposing socially and culturally constructed norms and structures of power. By making the marginalized visible, and viewing seemingly self-evident phenomena in different ways, Oh disrupts the order of normality and universality and discloses the difference and diversity embedded within that order.
Inhwan Oh often regards his works as “projects.” Conceived and prepared over extended periods, they do not conclude as one-off outcomes. Just as identity cannot be reduced to a single essence, his artistic practice does not converge into a fully completed form. Another defining feature of Oh’s practice is the introduction of unpredictable variables by calling upon others and forming relationships with them. The artist establishes the conditions for encountering with and participating in art, but does not attempt to control the outcome. Responses and silences, participation and refusal, chance encounters and indefinite waiting are all parts of the project, so the work changes continually according to participants’ choices, contingent circumstances, and the passage of time.
Rather than completely breaking away from social systems, Inhwan Oh twists norms and repeats them differently from within those very same systems―and that is because no one can exist outside society. Indeed, it is only within social structures that we can recognize who we are. His practice is therefore not a binary choice between simply following or rejecting norms; it is closer to creating fissures in an order by varying the manner of its repetition. The actions the artist performs or asks others to perform are familiar aspects of everyday life and may even appear trivial. However, by making taken-for-granted norms appear as strange and having those actions carried out differently, he reveals that they are not natural or universal but in fact socially constructed. A single act may seem inconsequential, but when sustained and repeated, it becomes a decisive catalyst for rearranging the underlying structure of society and bringing new possibilities into being.
Part 2 Seo Young Chang
Silicon Vanitas
Seo Young Chang has long been interested in human existence with respect to how it is bound to multiple temporalities: the repetitive time that keeps the body functioning, the finite time of the physical body, and the regular, linear time demanded by social systems. In her early works, she explored these temporalities in relation to the varied properties of video. Since the mid-2010s, however, her field of interest has expanded further to encompass the relationship between the body and our technology-based civilization. She contrasts the perfection demanded by capitalism, neoliberalism, and technocentrism with human beings, whose fragile and vulnerable bodies are inevitably destined to fall short. Drawing inspiration from disparate periods and media―from Greek mythology and science and technology journalism to short-form content platforms―Chang reveals the dissonance between limitless human desire and a body that must one day come to an end.
The theme of this exhibition is “Silicon Vanitas,” through which Seo Young Chang reinterprets the long-standing art-historical subject of vanitas within the contemporary technological environment. Silicon is the core material of semiconductors, enabling digital technologies that range from computers and smartphones to artificial intelligence, and a symbol of the foundation of today’s technological civilization. Vanitas, on the other hand, is an artistic form that recalls the transience of life and the inevitability of death, prompting reflection on the finite nature of life. The artist reexamines the human condition by juxtaposing the human body―one that places a brake on humanity’s unchecked pursuit of perpetual life―with the drive toward relentless advancement.
In this exhibition, Seo Young Chang attends to the human body as an imperfect entity that undergoes physical “errors” arising unexpectedly and contingently from within. Her motifs range from minor experiences beyond our control in daily life, such as fading memory and physical exhaustion, to severe conditions such as malignant neoplasms and genetic disorders. While Chang addresses weighty subjects such as illness, aging, and death, her distinctive wordplay and humor invite us to view the vulnerability of human existence from an unfamiliar yet playful perspective. Chang’s sculptural installations materially embody the concepts of the exhibition and her video works while occupying the physical space of the gallery as well. By combining video as a time-based medium with sculpture as a spatial form, she enables viewers to experience the works not only visually but also tactilely, extending their experience from two dimensions into three.
Rather than existing independently, Chang’s works are organically interconnected through motifs and concepts that appear time and again. Recurring images and concepts are varied differently in each work, forming a vast network. As viewers move through a labyrinthine exhibition space reminiscent of a circuit or conveyor belt, connecting scattered clues along the way, they trace their way across the map of the world Seo Young Chang has built.
