I got a chance to pay a short visit to Art Center Nabi, a non-profit media art center in Seoul, on Wednesday and realized how ignorant I was about what was going on in Korea’s media art scene. Régine interviewed Suhjung Hur, a curator of the center, back in June. So, check that one as well, for additional information about the center, active media artists in Korea, etc.

[Game Art: FUN studio_hide and Seek on Korean Peninsula – Director: Seung Joon Choi & I Artists]

The center is currently running the Project I 2.0 exhibition (curated by Dooeun Choi), which exemplifies the center’s continuous efforts in the area of youth culture. Suhjung said, in the aforementioned interview, “we have been leading ‘Project-I’ through which media artists and children in different locales meet and produce projects incorporating various mundane media technologies.” In Project I 2.0, 30 North Korean Refugee youths worked with mentor artists to create varieties of artistic techno artifacts embodying unique cultural, social and personal meanings.

FUN studio_hide and Seek on Korean Peninsula (the above photo) is one. It’s a hide and seek video game played on digitally reproduced Korean Peninsula and “there South & North Korean can play together lively.” (from Project I 2.0 flyer)

[Party Planning: Festival I 2.0 – Party Planner: Seung Beom Baeck & I Artists]

Festival I 2.0 – Party Planner is another. The children participated in the process of styling food, decorating flowers, setting the table, and so on. Imagine these children plan a party for the deprived in South Korea — and this can happen in reality.

I hope to revisit the center and other places, and talk with more people when I get a chance.

Many thanks to the center’s staff for their kind help!