Installation view of 《Memory, Stare, Wish》 © Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art

In spring 2024, marking ten years since the Sewol Ferry Disaster of 2014, Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art presents the commemorative exhibition 《Memory, Stare, Wish》. This exhibition honors the victims and remembers the tragedy through art, while also offering comfort to a society that continues to experience countless forms of disaster.

As a museum rooted in the local community of Ansan, GMoMA hopes this exhibition becomes a place where we collectively reflect on the meaning of community and offer consolation for the wounds that remain.

Although the sea after the Sewol tragedy can no longer hold the same meaning it once did, the sea as a life-giving, cyclical entity is recalled here—reframed and illuminated through art. The exhibition consists of three different seas that come together as one sea.

Installation view of 《Memory, Stare, Wish》 © Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art

A total of 17 artists (teams) participate in this exhibition, embracing a wide range of contemporary media including painting, sculpture, video, installation, sound, photography, and performance. Although the artists differ in media, generation, and subjects, their voices converge toward a shared intention: to remember a collective sorrow, to offer consolation, and to step forward together through art.

Likewise, society is composed of many different individuals—yet remains interconnected, forming one sea. Through this exhibition, we invite audiences to reflect on what kind of sea we form together, and how we may continue navigating forward.

우리가, 바(로보)다 — We are, the Sea (directly in front of us)
우리가, 바(라보)다 — We are, the Sea (the one we look toward)
우리가, 바(라)다 — We are, the Sea (that we wish for)

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