《The Postmodern Child》 understands the figure of the child—inevitably revealed as an object of discipline—as a continuation of modernity grounded in the concept of universal validity, and critically examines the crisis into which this Enlightenment-based mode of thinking has arrived. In order to abandon the dualistic order of modernity, the exhibition proposes specific conditions of separation and liberation.

In Part I of the exhibition, the separation from modernity first reveals how the concept of the child, constructed through reason-centered thinking, has developed in ways that deny and suppress the individuality of each child. In Part II, which follows in May 2023, the exhibition addresses liberation from modernity, suggesting that only when knowledge long regarded as universally valid is dismantled can diverse forms of existence truly coexist.

The exhibition questions the assumption that knowledge grounded in universal validity is inherently normal, correct, and good. From this perspective, it seeks to understand how the gaps within disciplinary systems—systems that continuously produce specific forms of existence—have been meticulously structured. Is such knowledge considered normal, correct, and good because it truly is so, or because we unquestioningly submit to it? Might the problem lie not with the knowledge itself, nor with the power that operates through it, but with us—who regard this knowledge and its associated power as presenting universal truths and legitimate principles?

The sense of unease in defining the somewhat peculiar exhibition title 《The Postmodern Child》 stems from an anxiety that redefining its meaning might once again produce a specific form of existence. While the title clearly poses a fundamental question to the modern concept of universal validity, the demand that one’s thinking align with that of others can itself be perceived as a form of coercion.

For this reason, while the exhibition offers a foundational framework, it ultimately hopes that diverse reflections on its underlying questions will be experienced and debated directly through the exhibition itself.

References

• 《포스트모던 어린이 (The Postmodern Child)》