Art Sonje Center presents a series of talk program in conjunction with the exhibition Spectrosynthesis Seoul, bringing together not only participating artists but also sociologists, literary critics, and art historians. By bringing perspectives from diverse fields into dialogue, these programs expand the exhibition’s discourse in a more layered way, while sharing the insights of artists and researchers, activating the museum as a space for dialogue.

Program Schedule

About the program

Trends in Queer Art Since the 2010s
 – Date and Time: Thu, April 9 at 18:00
 – Speaker: Nam Woong (Art Critic)
 – Language: Korean Only
 – Description: This program examines major curated exhibitions in Korea that have focused on queer themes since 2010. By questioning why 2010 serves as a starting point and why “queer art” remains a vital category, it explores the specificities and expansion possibilities of queer artistic practices attempted thus far. The session will discuss the tensions between recognition and antagonism, as well as the visible and the unrevealable. Furthermore, it delves into the temporalities of representation vs. anti-representation and narrative vs. non-narrative. By addressing the dynamics of the queer community and the pressing issues within the LGBTQ+ human rights movement, the program seeks to chart the future directions and possibilities of queer artistic practice.

Nam Woong (Art Critic)
Nam Woong is engaged in visual culture and art criticism, alongside human rights activism. Nam won the art criticism division of the 4th Platform Culture Criticism Award in 2011 with Discussion of the representation of a gay/msm with HIV/AIDS – From the HIV/AIDS crisis to today’s Korean society, and the SeMA-Hana Art Criticism Award 2017 with Art collective today – While we see the present with the eyes of the past, we are still connected as long as there is light for a while. Nam’s co-authored works include Infectious Disease and Humanities (2014), Meta-universe: The Generation, Region, Space, and Media of Korean Art in the 2000s (2015), Issue Point of Korea 2017 (2016), and Conversations on Queer Art (2024). Nam is a standing activist of the Solidarity for LGBT Human Rights of Korea Haengseongin.

The Murmurs of Those Without History
 – Date and Time: Thu, April 16 at 18:00
 – Speaker: Seo Dongjin (Cultural Critic)
 – Language: Korean Only
 – Description: Someone asks, “Are you on this side?” And (s)he nods in response. Those living on “this side” have identified themselves in this way, creating the symbols, rituals, and ideas that bring them together as a distinctive social group. This has been both a reaction against discrimination and negation, and a practice of marking the pleasures and hopes embedded within their own lives. We trace the historical process from “homosexuality” (dongseong-yeonae) to Global Queer, and further to the Post-Queer. Along this path, we intersect the transformations of LGBTQ+ utopian politics with the trajectory leading from the Gay Liberation Movement to today’s identity politics. This exploration is an attempt to contemplate how deeply those who are deemed “without history” have actually been situated within the burden of history.

Seo Dongjin (Cultural Critic)
Seo Dongjin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Art & Design Intermedia Art at Kaywon University. He has served as Chairman of the Korean Critical Sociological Association, a member of the steering committee for the Korea Artist Prize at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, and an editorial board member of Noon, the journal of the Gwangju Biennale. He has collaborated with institutions including the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, the Busan Museum of Contemporary Art, the Seoul Museum of Art, and the National Asian Culture Center on exhibitions, projects, performances, and critical writings. His publications include The Non-Aligned Movement Reader (ed., 2020), After the Contemporaneity: Time, Experience, and Image (2018), and The Nap of the Dialectics (2014). Most recently, he participated in the National Asian Culture Center’s exhibition Manifesto of Spring with the work Burning Coal and White Charcoal.

“Queer” Politics Constituting Sick Seoul (2026)
 – Date and Time: Thu, April 30 at 18:00
 – Speaker: siren eun young jung (Artist)
 – Language: Korean Only
 – Description: siren eun young jung’s new work, Sick Seoul—premiering at Spectrosynthesis Seoul—was inspired by the poem of the same title written in 1945 by poet O Jang-hwan (1918–1951). Much like his poetry, which captured the revolutionary affects and landscapes of the post-liberation era, this work asserts “queer” as a radical practice that advocates for contemporary resistance and politics, bridging the concepts of “insurgency” and the “public square.” In this session, the artist will introduce the process of constructing the various layers surrounding her work, further attempting a critical reading of the ontology and politics of queer art.

siren eun young jung (Artist)
siren eun young jung is an artist based in Seoul. Her practice, centered on video and performance, explores political actions in art through feminist-queer perspectives. Her major projects, such as the Dongducheon Project (2007–2009) and the Yeoseong Gukgeuk Project (2008–present), focus on dismantling hegemonic narratives and reconstructing the archives and memories of marginalized communities.