Hong Jin-hwon (left), Gim Ikhyun (right) © Nowhere

This series sets out to closely examine the new coordinates, large and small, emerging in the Korean art scene today: the so-called “21st-century artist-run space.” It documents the modes of expression and voices of artists whose practices are expanding beyond artworks themselves through the physical medium of “space.”

“An exhibition space located 70 meters above sea level in Changsin-dong, Jongno-gu.” Despite firmly keeping in mind this helpful “warning” posted on the website, I managed to lose my way on both of my visits. As I climbed the narrow, steep hillside roads, my nerves were on edge both mentally and physically, yet my curiosity also grew toward this distinctive neighborhood, where details intimately connected to everyday life remain unusually vivid.

Two years after settling in this place that feels “unlike Seoul,” Nowhere is already presenting its thirteenth exhibition. Run by photographers Gim Ikhyun and Hong Jin-hwon, the space was initially conceived as “an alternative space for photography.” The two borrowed the phrase “now, here” from a poem by Sim Bo-seon, a poet they both admire.

The approximately 165-square-meter space had previously been used as a parking lot and a garment factory. The spatial design, as well as the logo and poster design, was created by Material and Immaterial.


Gim Ikhyun, Link Path Layer - Pocheon Geumju Mine, 2016, inkjet print, 160 x 200 cm © Gim Ikhyun

On January 17, 2015, more than a hundred visitors climbed the cold uphill road to attend “Maintain Connection”, a roundtable that began on Twitter. Since then, Nowhere has organized a number of curated exhibitions and invited solo exhibitions, including 《Now-here, as if a blind person touches an elephant》, 《Outside of Timeline》, 《How did you end up in place like this》, and 《Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night》, the latter presented as an exhibition within the Seoul Museum of Art’s 《Seoul Babel》.

Around twice a year, the space also hosts rental exhibitions by emerging artists who have received funding. More recently, one corner of the office has been occupied by what the organizers call a “parasitic exhibition,” Kim Juwon’s solo exhibition 《Now Here, Bright World》, which has been running for an entire year. Through such extensive experimentation with the institution of the “exhibition,” Nowhere aspires to be a free platform where its organizers can further “study” emerging artists and contemporary art.


Hong Jin-hwon, Temporary Landscapes, 2012, National Police Hospital Station, Seoul, Republic of Korea © Hong Jin-hwon

After running the space for two years, the two artists agree that “the way we approach and think about life and work as artists has changed considerably.” The experience has involved not only their individual practices but also learning firsthand the responsibility of planning and completing an exhibition, as well as how to communicate with artists of their own generation and with the art world more broadly. It has also freed them from the fear, as artists, of potentially being marginalized within established institutions.

Yet this heartwarming process contains an unexpected degree of “disagreement” as well. Although they began co-running the space because they got along well, they say that when it comes to planning exhibitions, they disagree “to death.” Perhaps the conversations and debates in which they try to persuade one another—and, when that fails, return to square one—are the true driving force behind Nowhere.


Installation view of 《.jpg》 © Nowhere

The two artists say they initially struggled somewhat when choosing the name of the space. As members of a generation living according to the flow of time on social-media timelines, they wondered whether it was even appropriate to speak of “now, here.” Yet could there be another phrase as compelling precisely because it is at once so exact and so ambiguous?

As with the gap between “now, here” and “nowhere” described by the two artists, the moment of “now, here” is always shifting according to different frames of reference. In that sense, Nowhere signifies a place and a moment that are always open. One can only hope that this moment will continue for a long time.

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