Curator Sungah Serena Choo Finds Inspiration in the Personal

Last year, Sungah Serena Choo joined the Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art as a curator. She was in charge of the exhibition, “Philippe Parreno: VOICES” (February 28–July 7), curated by Sungwon Kim, the Deputy Director of Leeum. It is the solo exhibition of the French artist’s work, which often explores the connections between time and memory, perception and experience. More of a journey through the artist’s personal stories, it is imagined to be an experience rather than a typical art event. This contextual framing, reliant on both the throughline in storytelling and medium choices, is something Choo has been interested in throughout her art career, and one that she aims to further explore and express in her role at the museum.

Prior to joining Leeum, Choo worked at the Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) and then as an independent curator for seven years. Her experiences in the art world have led her to create long-lasting relationships with artists, observe the landscape’s rapid changes, and support emerging contemporary voices alongside modern, traditional Korean artists Leeum is known to showcase. In celebration of the museum’s 20th anniversary, Choo shared with Whitewall how she’s currently embracing and showcasing the evolving art world in Seoul and where to explore when you’re in town. 

Sungah Serena Choo, curator at Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art

WHITEWALL: Through your independent and on-staff work as a curator, how has your approach to curating art evolved? Are you gravitating to different mediums, or exercising different curatorial muscles now at Leeum?

SUNGAH SERENA CHOO: It’s not easy to present so many exhibitions in one’s own language and senses for a long time. So far, I have been interested in the folded and unfolded forms of the medium based on sculptural practices of emerging artists based in Seoul. It always interests me, giving narrative to exhibitions, such as presenting to interpret the structure of language in literature in conjunction with how artists deal with specific mediums expanded to their attitudes.

Moreover, personal situations and stories inspire me, which I think an exhibition should have that the audience can relate to. Rather than universal sympathy, questions that may not be universal or that could easily be overlooked, but that have not yet been unveiled to the surface, may be visualized in the form of empathy. In this way, just as the most personal matters are derived from the most fundamental questions, when curating exhibitions that focus on linking the micro-history in our lives with the context of mediums and attitude aspects of visual art. 

WW: You said in a previous interview that younger voices are shaping the art scene in ways they haven’t been able to before. How so?

SSC: There has been a huge switch in how younger generation groups of artists and curators build up their voices. In Seoul, a decade ago was a time that enabled artists born in the 1980s, who were still considered emerging and young artists, to create a topographic map of the current art scene and the nature of art spaces.

In the early to mid-2010s, there was an explosive growth of independent spaces and collectives that strove to operate their own spaces that were both studio and exhibition spaces as well as curating exhibitions since they could not show their works at art institutions and they wanted to create more. If the voice of the curator was not recognized a decade ago, the last decade has seen the rise of independent curators since we have built a sense of camaraderie and collaboration with our contemporaries and we have begun to speak up for the rights and roles of the curator in our own creative language. Through time and persistence, young artists have established themselves over the past decade or so, and they are still shaping the art scene of today.

The Changing Landscape of Seoul’s Art Ecosystem

WW: What has visibly changed in the past 10 years?

SSC: Seoul’s art ecosystem, which has been working more flexibly than other cities and states since the pandemic, has become more visible to international stakeholders. In the immediate aftermath of COVID-19, major international galleries opened branches in Seoul and started to take an interest in young Korean artists, presenting group exhibitions on a smaller scale. It has been a bit difficult for young Korean artists to integrate into the boundaries of the commercial scene. But as opportunities have arisen, the scene has been divided into those who are wary of or actively embrace the conflation of commercial and noncommercial.

The same is true of established art institutions. I think now is a transitional period in which things coexist without being biased to one side or the other in the process. I find that many artists who have many opportunities showing works in different cities expanding outside. In addition to this, the online platforms of social media have led to an explosion of young artists who have developed artistic languages that are equally at home in a more international language, rather than remaining in a domestic language.

Must-See Art Spaces in Seoul

WW: For those new to Seoul, where would you recommend they visit?

SSC: For art, I recommend N/A, located in Euljiro, which has a program that showcases a wide range of genres such as fashion and photography, as well as contemporary art, with exhibitions that introduce an expanded group of emerging and young artists. It’s a move that differs from the conservatism prevailing in the art world. In addition, Primary Practice, which was recently inaugurated last year in Buam-dong, Jongno-gu, is a project space that runs with a curatorial direction. It presents the artistic practice of young artists from a more delicate perspective.