A collaboration between KOFICE, Embassy of the Republic of Korea and NIROX Sculpture Park
May 8 – August 29, 2021
Curated by Sunjung Kim (The real DMZ Project) and Marta Moriarty (That Hidden Thread)
Co-curated by Jessica Doucha (Margins of Error)
Project Director Ann Roberts
There is a connective tissue that runs through our collective veins, it seeps through the porous dimensions of human existence. It dwells in our bones and aims to find an expression that binds rather than separates. In times of such uncertainty we are forced to shift, introspect and challenge the deviated hierarchical structures, through a lens of connectivity and wholeness.
“It brings together artists from South Korea, Morocco and South Africa, in a joint attempt to confound the bitterness latent in a reactionary desire to destroy compassion, arrest human movement, and defy growth. A margin of error is designed to absorb a shortfall or contradiction in the event of a miscalculation or change in circumstance. Conceptually and practically flexible, it supposes the great likelihood that mistakes occur. As a principle, a margin of error is democratic, despite the cynicism that is also fixed to it. However, what a margin of error constitutively acknowledges is that life – politics, economics, art – is variable. There are no absolute guarantees, there is only infinite possibility, whether good or ill, which can as easily transform hell into heaven, heaven into hell.” Ashraf Jamal.
The Real DMZ Project – a contemporary art project based on research conducted on the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) in South Korea arrives, for the first time in Africa. Having begun with a critical perspective on the ironies that surround the Demilitarized Zone, the project has extended its parameters by experimenting not only with new productions and exhibitions but also via dialogue and discussions within the field of the humanities and social sciences. Since the ceasefire and truce between the two Koreas in 1953, the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) has divided North and South Korea in constant tension.
The DMZ is one of the world’s most heavily fortified areas. An abandoned ‘no go’ swaithe of land 4km wide, 248km long. Internationally it asserts the tense polarisation of power politics. There are few, if any promising signs of resolving these tensions. South Korean artists have turned to this subject, addressing its domestic and universal significance.
That Hidden Thread is an exhibition program fostering alignment across Africa, a continent torn apart by borders too often determined by conflict, foreign interests and naked power. That Hidden Thread contemplates a thread – a conceptual bridge across the continent created by artists from Morocco in the far North and South Africa.
According to Jamal, ‘Margins of Error brings together a multi-faceted exhibition where borders, edges and self reflexivity is the common thread of inquisition throughout this multi media exhibition comprising sculpture, performance, painting, digital art and horticulture asks us to rethink the devastating consequences of exclusionary policies and practice.’
Participating artists:
Yamou ABDERRAHIM (MAR), Lhola AMIRA (SA), Youness ATBANE (MAR), Seung Woo BACK (KOR), Hye Ryeong CHO (KOR), Daejin CHOI (KOR), Soyoung CHUNG (KOR), Jessica DOUCHA (SA), Amine El GOTAIBI (MAR), Kyungah HAM (KOR), Michele MATHISON (SA/ZWE), Marco MIEHLING (GER), Sethembile MSEZANE (SA), Chan-Kyong PARK (KOR), Mary SIBANDE (SA), Buhlebezwe SIWANI (SA), Chris SOAL (SA), Yeesookyung (KOR), Kyung Jin ZOH (KOR), Adrián VILLAR ROJAS (ARG).
Sponsors & Partners
KOFICE(Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange) , Embassy of the Republic of Korea, The Real DMZ Project, Space for Contemporary Art, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of the Republic of Korea, Samsung, The Claire and Edoardo Villa Will Trust, University of Johannesburg, Contemporary Sculpture Fulmer London, Moriarty.
