For the occasion of the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul—the first major international sporting event held in South Korea—Nam June Paik’s Wrap Around the World presented the pioneering video artist’s vision of a global television, underscoring the Olympic charter’s principles of fostering "mutual understanding and international friendship". The 1988 Olympics also marked South Korea’s turn towards democracy and globalisation; and many believe, helped to present the image of a progressive nation distinct from one ravaged by war. This not only shows the political role of the Olympics but how they can be viewed as a force of good in the world. These notions of national pride, progress, technology and international fraternity—with Paik’s work from '88 serving as an anchor—are drawn together in an exhibition at the Grand Palais Immersif in Paris, Decoding Korea.

The exhibition, which traces the evolution of Korean society through contemporary media art, is organised by The Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism of the Republic of Korea and the Korea Arts Management Service. Part of the '2024 Korea Season,' a soft power initiative aimed at introducing Korean culture to a global audience in France coinciding with the 2024 Paris Olympics, the contemporary art showcase will be on view from July 26 - August 25, 2024. Speaking about the exhibition, curator Lee Daehyung tells STIR, “Decoding Korea was created to capture the country’s dynamic journey over the past century, intricately weaving together our collective memory and identity. It embodies the indomitable spirit of the grandfather generation, who endured Japanese occupation and the Korean War; the resilience of the parent generation, who spearheaded economic recovery and industrialisation; and our generation's exploration of new values in an era of material abundance.”

Participating artists draw on themes that reflect Korea's multifaceted identity, considering notions of “memory, power, borders, technology and the environment,” the curatorial statement explains. For the artists Nam June Paik, Yiyun Kang, Hayoun Kwon, Kim Heecheon, Ram Han, ROOMTONE, Junebum Park, Yeom Ji Hye, Lee Yongbaek, Lee Lee Nam and Jung Yeondoo, digital art is a tool to destabilise linear notions of time and perception. Lee elaborates on Paik’s inclusion and draws a connection to the earlier Olympic Games, “[It] serves as a critical touchstone for exploring the transformative period of the 1988 Olympics, [and Korea’s emergence] on the global stage. This historical context is a crucial thread woven into the exhibition's narrative [since] Paik’s use of technology to foster global communication and cultural exchange resonates deeply with the themes of democratisation and openness. By highlighting Paik’s Wrap Around the World, we aimed to reflect on this pivotal era [while offering] a richer, more nuanced understanding of how Korea’s past struggles and triumphs have shaped its present and continue to influence its future.”

Of the artists in the exhibition, the tone for the displayed works is set by Lee Lee Nam who questions conventional meanings attributed to famous artworks, juxtaposing them with contemporary issues through the digital work Lost Paradise (2024). The work blends modern European works, such as Rene Magritte’s The Son of Man (1964) and traditional Asian artworks depicting natural landscapes with imagery of bombs laid over them, hence serving as a critique of war and subsequent environmental destruction. The muddy relationship of reality and virtuality prevalent in the works is probed by Heecheon Kim’s Double Poser (2023), which presents an interactive video installation using a game engine, allowing visitors to navigate multiple stories. The work emphasises how technology reshapes our perceptions by highlighting the interplay between personal and collective narratives.

Lee’s approach underscores how technology was a big part of the modernisation of Korea. As he writes in his curatorial statement, “Throughout Korea's modern history, technology has driven rapid economic growth and industrialisation while also fostering social and cultural change.” Moreover, as Lee mentions, technology is particularly significant for contemporary Korean artists; for example, works by Ram Han and ROOMTONE use AI and VR. Ram Han’s Full of Fortune (2023) is an interactive artwork that uses hand-tracking technology for visitors to simulate the act of eating virtual food. ROOMTONE's works Inside Dream (2023) and In the Gray (2018) blur the boundaries between reality and dreams with the use of VR.

The surrealist mise en abyme montage of Inside Dream depicts the artist’s dreams while In the Gray allows visitors to interact with objects using VR headsets, depicting an artificial intelligence using a dream world to learn from its errors. By making the audience active participants in the work, the South Korean artists also bring into discussion the idea of posthumanism or the intersection of humans with technology, a topic relevant for an age where it pervades all facets of life.

Other artists bring to light the drawbacks of blind progress by focusing on the idea of territory and the environment. As Lee mentions in his statement, a large part of South Korea’s identity is defined by its boundary to the North—a vestige of the Korean War that divided the country—and the relationship of its people to the land they inhabit. Where Lee Yongbaek’s video work Angel Soldier (2011) depicts what appear to be camouflaged soldiers in a background filled with flowers—questioning boundaries between good/evil and beautiful/ugly—Hayoun Kwon's 489 Years (2016) presents a 3D animated video recreating a soldier’s memories from the Korean DMZ (Demilitarised Zone). Not only does the work serve as a metaphorical reconstruction of South Korea's social identity, but the beautiful scenery depicted also adds a layer of critique on the divide between humans and nature.

Junebum Park and Jung Yeondoo’s video works dwell further on how national identities are defined through relationships to how land is demarcated. Junebum's Land for Schools (2018-2024) presents a satellite view of a school building to demonstrate the transformation of urban spaces as a product of social, political and economic relationships. On the other hand, Yeondoo’s Crow’s Eye View (2022) depicts a crow’s perspective of the industrial city of Ulsan. Revealing structures of modern society and urban life, shifting the gaze to a non-human perspective presents an invitation to rethink the relationship between the manmade and the natural.

Similarly, Yiyun Kang and Yeom Ji Hye probe themes of ecology. Yiyun’s Finite (2021), a multi-projection and audio installation, begins with tranquil natural scenery, which devolves into scenes of human-altered landscapes and eventual disintegration. Hye’s Symbioplot: A Plot Where We Cohabit (2020) takes this further with a single-channel video that loops kaleidoscopic renderings of plant life and the sky. Illustrating how nonhuman entities serve as active agents in environmental degradation and climate change, it asks visitors to reflect on the intrinsic relationship between humans and non-humans.

While the show takes as its starting point Paik’s Wrap Around The World, a work that was optimistic about global solidarity in a technologically advanced age, other artists in this exhibition subvert this idea. Instead, they represent the current cultural moment, one of crisis and dissonance if the actual reception to the Olympics is any indication. The Games have always harboured controversies around access, the glossing over of prevalent imbalances to illustrate a host country’s development and thus have seen diminished viewership over the years.

Commenting on this dichotomy, Lee says, “The reality of contemporary global events, including the Olympics, reveals ongoing issues of inequality and division. The exhibition embraces these contradictions, using them to provoke critical reflection and dialogue.” By engaging with the complexities of ideals such as progress, art, technology and globalisation, the works on view illustrate how these concepts can both connect and divide us, a message not only relevant to decoding Korea but the world.