Group Exhibition The National Asian Culture Center, South Korea
Organized to mark the ACC’s 10th anniversary, Asia, The Apparatus presents selected experimental films and video artworks researched and collected by the center over the years. Through moving images—a term now widely used to describe the convergence of these two genres—the exhibition reactivates the memories and communal narratives of multiple Asias within a shared space, acknowledging their distinct identities and histories.
Asia’s modern and contemporary history has unfolded through cycles of colonization and division, revolution and development, censorship and resistance, and discrimination and exclusion. These histories have been recorded through the apparatuses of media and technology, while also being repeatedly reduced, erased, or rearranged through the apparatuses of institutions. In the context of this exhibition, the term “apparatus” extends beyond cinematic tools—such as cameras, film, projectors, and screens—to encompass the underlying structures that capture events, edit time, and reorganize memory. This dual meaning reveals the tension between what we have been allowed to see and what remains hidden.
The works in this exhibition unfold through three interrelated processes: Dictation–Representation–Rewriting. “Dictation” refers to histories written by external forces rather than in one’s own voice; “representation” is the act of calling those histories back into view; and “rewriting” involves interpreting and reconfiguring them anew.
On the first floor of the circular, panopticon-like structure, the presentation consists entirely of women’s narratives. This curatorial choice positions women’s histories—long defined by external gazes—as the starting point of “dictation,” ultimately opening the exhibition to active, self-determined voices. As visitors walk through these layered voices of Asia, they encounter spaces familiar across the region: movie theaters, train stations, dormitories, and convenience stores. These everyday sites function not merely as backdrops but as profound intersections of different times and memories.
Formed by the various apparatuses that structure the world we inhabit and traverse, Asia, The Apparatus functions as a collective workshop of communities illuminating diverse lives. It serves as a cinematic village where we can envision a better future alongside the audience.
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