Layered Medium: We Are in Open Circuits is a major new group exhibition exploring the evolution of Korea’s radical contemporary art scene and its enduring legacy. The show, which explores medium as a substance and system of communication, brings together 48 works by 28 Korean artists from the 1960s to today, from Nam June Paik and Park Hyunki to Lee Bul, Haegue Yang, Ayoung Kim and Moka Lee. On view at Manarat Al Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi, the landmark exhibition is the largest Korean contemporary art exhibition to take place in the Gulf Cooperation Council region to date.
Co-curated by SeMA curator Kyung-hwan Yeo and ADMAF curator Maya El Khalil, Layered Medium: We Are in Open Circuits brings together works from the Seoul Museum of Art’s collection, many of which are being shown in the UAE for the first time. Tracing the evolution of Korea’s unique avant-garde contemporary art scene, the exhibition follows the media-driven expansions and connections evident in representative works by key Korean contemporary artists from the past sixty years. It addresses how artists have responded to the dramatic social and technological changes in Korea through the amalgamation of media, highlighting artworks moving through layered, intersecting mediums, shifting from the intimate to the global, with perspectives on the past, present and future.
Drawing on Nam June Paik’s prescient 1966 statement “We Are in Open Circuits”, which anticipated our hyper-connected contemporary world, the exhibition explores how art operates as a system of communication, exploring connections from our most intimate sensory experiences to mediations of the larger systems and structures that shape our urban, social and cultural conditions. Situating the exhibition in the cultural context of Abu Dhabi imbues the works with new layers of meaning, particularly in a region which shares experiences of globalisation and rapid urbanisation. Significantly, the exhibition is the first large-scale showcase of SeMA’s collection beyond Korea and serves as an important platform to introduce Korea’s artistic heritage to new audiences, expanding the reach of the museum internationally.
The exhibition begins with an introduction to the radical early years of Korea’s contemporary art scene, and pioneering experimentation with new medium such as video, photography and performance. Works from key figures of the 1960s and 70s mark moments of profound transition in Korean society, hybridising traditional and contemporary ways of seeing. Situating the ‘self’ emerged as a crucial concern for these artists, which we see through important works such as Nam June Paik’s Self-Portrait Dharma wheel (1998), a personal meditation on artistic presence and representative identities. Whilst Lee Kang-So’s Painting 78-1 (1977) and Park Hyunki’s works TV Fishbowl (1979) and Video Inclining Water (1979) consider how our physical position shapes perspective.
The exhibition continues by exploring the immediate sensory experiences of the body, considering how artists investigate how we physically experience and process the world. Works such as Lee Kun-yong’s The Method of Drawing: Body Drawing 76-2-07-02 (2007) and Min Oh’s Etude for Etude (Music Performance (2018), examine the boundary between human and non-human perception, investigating how tools and media extend our capacity for expression and understanding. Hong Seung-Hye’s Ghost (2016) and Chung Seoyoung’s Ghost Will Be Better (2005) consider the tension between presence and absence, engaging with the spectral figure of the ghost. Whilst in Lee Bul’s Untitled (Crystal Figure) (2006), the body becomes a site of historical and cultural negotiation, questioning how bodies have been represented across different cultural traditions.
In the third section of the exhibition, artworks engage with artefacts of cultural memory and consider how individual and collective identities are shaped. We see artists reflecting on the ways in which changing media reframe how meaning moves between personal experience and shared cultural narratives. Works such as Sojung Jun’s collaborative performances and DMZ documentations probe the possibility of artistic exchange across political boundaries, whilst Hayoun Kwon’s virtual recreation of colonial-era Seoul explores how historical memory travels through literary, visual and technological mediations.
The exhibition concludes by moving from the subjective interior experiences of our own body to the tangible material spaces of interconnected urban landscapes and networks. Minouk Lim’s S.O.S.―Adoptive Dissensus (2009)takes the viewer on a journeynavigating Seoul waterways, whilst Ayoung Kim’s Delivery Dancer Simulation (2022) traverses an algorithmically controlled, fictitious Seoul, a digital simulation that we participate in through the perspective of a delivery driver.
The exhibition’s accompanying publication Layered Dialogues will feature texts written by UAE-based writers, deepening the dialogue between the two art scenes and framing the exhibition in the cultural context of Abu Dhabi. The exhibition design, developed by Formafantasma, approaches design as medium, emphasising spatial storytelling, material research, and the relationship between physical and conceptual frameworks.
The public programme accompanying the exhibition includes a series of panel discussions and artist film screenings. Further details of the public programme will be available online in due course.
Kyung-hwan Yeo, Co-Curator from SeMA said: “Through this exhibition, we encounter ways in which artists featured in SeMA’s collection select and reinvent media, confronting their intricate processes and navigating across varying amplitudes of thought. We examine new forms of connection embedded within these artists and their works—not perfectly seamless but inherently partial and fragmented. Art urges usto reflect again on precisely these imperfections and inadequacies, speaking of the persistent ways hope survives amid ruins and fragments.”
Maya El Khalil, Co-Curator from ADMAF said: “Bringing these important works from Seoul Museum of Art’s Collection to Abu Dhabi, we had to consider the context in which they would be encountered and how this would inherently shape their meaning. Never a one-way transmission, meaning operates in open circuits. Works that may have carried specific cultural resonance in Seoul could become more abstract or universal here, while other dimensions of this location surface new meanings. This transfer is not a loss but a transformation, where different depths of connection become possible.”
About the Collaboration between Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation (ADMAF) and Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA)
The exhibition represents the first in a unique three-year institutional collaboration between ADMAF and SeMA that brings two major co-curated and co produced group exhibitions to the cities of Abu Dhabi and Seoul in 2025. This long-term partnership, which began in 2024, brings together UAE and South Korea through their artists and institutions, fostering artistic dialogue and transnational understanding between the two countries. Jointly developed by ADMAF and SeMA, the two exhibitions draw from their institutional collections to explore the distinct histories and cultural paradigms of the regions, presenting shared experiences alongside perspectives on technology, media, and rapid urban development.
Following Layered Medium: We Are in Open Circuits in Abu Dhabi, the second co-curated exhibition will open at Seoul Museum of Art from 16 December – 22 February 2026. Intense Proximities will bring together three generations of UAE-based artists from 1980s to today, examining the tensions between local and global identities and addressing the challenges of representing the complexities and fluid realities of a globalized world.
Alongside the two exhibitions, the collaboration between ADMAF and SeMA also features co-commissioned artworks, artist residencies, cross-institutional knowledge sharing, and an ongoing public programme of panel discussions, performances and artist film screenings in Abu Dhabi and Seoul.
H.E. Huda Al Khamis-Kanoo, Founder of the Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation (ADMAF) said: Her Excellency Huda Ibrahim Al Khamis-Kanoo, Founder of the Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation and Founder and Abu Dhabi Festival, said: “The organisation of the Seoul Museum of Art’s (SeMA) collection exhibition is a first in the Middle East, in the spirit of the directives of His Highness Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Founding Honorary Patron of the Abu Dhabi Festival. This initiative aiming to promote cultural diplomacy and foster global cultural partnerships reflects our MOU with the Government of Seoul, signed by its Mayor, His Excellency Oh Se-hoon, to enhance cultural ties and cooperation between our two nations.”
H.E continued: “This historic exhibition, featuring 48 works by 28 Korean visual artists in Abu Dhabi, showcases the evolution of Korea’s media art scene over five decades, as well as its interaction with the artistic landscape of the UAE. Under the joint curation of SeMA’s Kyung-hwan Yeo and ADMAF’s Maya El Khalil, it also highlights the pioneering figures whose innovation and creativity have helped define what contemporary art is today.”
“The exhibition, ‘Layered Medium: We Are in Open Circuits,’ represents the first large-scale international showcase of the Seoul Museum of Art’s collection outside Korea. Serving as a significant platform to present Korea’s artistic legacy to a new audience, it broadens the museum’s regional presence and reaffirms Abu Dhabi’s leading role as a global cultural hub. Additionally, it provides a valuable opportunity to present contemporary Korean art to a wider public across the Gulf Cooperation Council region,” H.E concluded.
Eunju Choi, General Director of the Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) said: “Layered Medium: We Are in Open Circuits marks the most extensive presentation of Contemporary Korean Art to date in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. Featuring 48 works by 28 Korean artists—including seminal pieces from the Seoul Museum of Art’s collection—the exhibition offers a compelling overview of current practices in Korean contemporary art. The exhibition includes Nam June Paik’s Self-Portrait Dharma Wheel (1998), and Ayoung Kim’s Delivery Dancer’s Sphere (2022), which together trace both the legacy and the future directions of Korean Media Art. Audiences in the GCC will have a unique opportunity to engage with the historical context, distinct characteristics, and future possibilities of Contemporary Korean Art.”
She added: “In December, SeMA will continue this cultural dialogue by presenting Intense Proximities, an exhibition introducing contemporary art from the United Arab Emirates, at the Seosomun Main Branch of SeMA. We believe these exhibitions will not only foster greater understanding between our respective art communities, but also contribute meaningfully to the global discourse on contemporary art.”
Press release from Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation (ADMAF) and Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA)
Image: Ayoung Kim. Delivery Dancer’s Sphere. 2022. Image courtesy of the artist
