Yehwan Song and Kwang-Ju Son Explore Identity and Colonialism at Haus for Media Art Oldenburg

The Haus for Media Art Oldenburg is presenting a duo exhibition by Yehwan Song and Kwang-Ju Son titled The Square and the Cross. The two Korean female artists, who come from different generations, use contrasting approaches to examine identity, connection, history, and the wide-ranging effects of colonialism—both digital and historical—on lived experience and language. Yehwan Song's large-scale video installation The Square (2023–2026) occupies the upper gallery. The work's delicate and complex structure is driven by a single ambition: to imagine the internet otherwise. Song has long explored how the internet has evolved and fundamentally changed human behavior, altering users' sense of purpose and reshaping their patterns of attention. What started as a promise of open access, limitless knowledge, and unrestricted social space is the starting point of her inquiry. The exhibition brings together two artists whose strategies diverge while their concerns overlap, placing questions of identity and history alongside the digital and colonial legacies that shape contemporary life.