Korean Video Art Exhibition Explores Media and Society at Abu Dhabi's Manarat Al Saadiyat

Manarat Al Saadiyat in Abu Dhabi presents 'We Are in Open Circuits,' featuring 48 works by 29 Korean artists from the Seoul Museum of Art collection. The exhibition, running from 16 May to 30 June 2025, examines how media shapes perception across three thematic sections: 'Body as Medium,' 'Society as Medium,' and 'Space as Medium.' It opens with pioneering video works from the 1960s and 1970s, including Nam June Paik's installation 'Moon is the Oldest TV-1965-1967' (1996) and Park Hyunki's performance documentation 'Video Inclining Water' (1979), which interrogate the relationship between illusion and reality. Contemporary pieces like Hyejoo Jun's video essay 'The Birth of a New Flower' (2023–24) analyze plants within industrial and socioeconomic networks. Young In Hong's embroidered tapestry 'Under the Sky of Happiness' (2013) reimagines a 1974 film poster with portraits of Korean women, critiquing male-centered historical narratives. Ayoung Kim's 2022 video game 'Delivery Dancer Simulation' and video 'Delivery Dancer's Sphere' depict the fragmented experience of labor in hyperconnected urban environments, resonating with Abu Dhabi's desert landscape where delivery drivers navigate extreme heat. The show's title references a 1965 quote by Nam June Paik, reflecting on South Korea's social transformations during Park Chung-hee's military regime and the rise of satellite television as both artistic material and cultural reflector.