DMZ Revisited: Nikolaus Hirsch and Kyong Park in Conversation

Please join Nikolaus Hirsch and Kyong Park, who will discuss art historical and architectural significance of the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ)—one of the world’s most heavily militarized border, located between South and North Korea. Nikolaus Hirsch co-curated the Real DMZ Project in 2014 with Sunjung Kim, and Kyong Park, together with Cathleen Crabb, curated the Project DMZ exhibition at the Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York in 1988. Based on their own experience of curating exhibitions on the DMZ, they will discuss their ongoing artistic exploration on the DMZ, questioning its implication on a broader geopolitical discourse on borders.

Nikolaus Hirsch is a Frankfurt-based architect and co-founder of e-flux architecture. He was the director of Städelschule academy in Frankfurt (2010-2013) and previously taught at the Architectural Association in London, University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and at the Institute of Applied Theatre Studies at Giessen University. His projects include the award-winning Dresden Synagogue (2001) and Do We Dream Under The Same Sky for Art Basel (2016). Hirsch curated numerous exhibitions at Portikus Kunsthalle, Folly for the Gwangju Biennale (2014), the Real DMZ Project (2014), and Housing Question/Wohnungsfrage at the HKW in Berlin (2015). Hirsch is the author of the book On Boundaries (2007), and co-author of Track 17 (2009), Institution Building (2009), Folly (2013), and Superhumanity (2018). 

Kyong Park is Professor of Public Culture and Speculative Design in the Department of Visual Arts, University of California, San Diego. He was the Founding Director of Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York (1982–1998), the International Centre for Urban Ecology in Detroit (1998–2001), and the Centrala Foundation for Future Cities in Rotterdam (2005–2006). He was also a curator of the 1997 Gwangju Biennale and Artistic Director and Chief Curator of Anyang Public Art Project 2010 in Korea. He is the author of Urban Ecology: Detroit and Beyond (2005) and Imagining Eurasia: Visualizing Contemporary History (2019).

The event will be followed by a drinks reception. 

This event is free, but booking is essential. Please sign up using the Eventbrite link above.