Installation view of 《Dreaming by Day》. Photo: Cheolki Hong, © Wooran Foundation
The Wooran Foundation presents the special exhibition 《Dreaming by Day》
through July 8, examining the sense of helplessness and fatigue that
individuals encounter amid a rapidly changing society.
Having long explored the aesthetics embedded in the skilled
hands of artisans and the processes of making, the foundation expands the value
of “making” from the realm of material craft into that of the mind and
imagination through this exhibition.
In this context, the exhibition brings together six artists—Kim
Jisun, Park Siwol, Yang Jung Uk, Lim Sungoo, Jeon Hyunsun, and Choi Sujin—whose
practices construct distinctive narratives through the language of materials,
highlighting the power of active imagination that can emerge from the cracks
and uncertainties of contemporary reality.
Installation view of 《Dreaming by Day》. Photo: Cheolki Hong, © Wooran Foundation
The exhibition title, “Dreaming by Day,” refers not to the
dreams that drift through the unconscious at night, but to an active act of
resistance—one that responds to the world through a waking consciousness and
constructs a world of its own.
In this sense, the title resonates with the participating
artists’ approach to imagination, embracing it not only as a mode of
representation but also as an ontological condition capable of defying the
gravity of reality.
Installation view of 《Dreaming by Day》. Photo: Cheolki Hong, © Wooran Foundation
Rather than retreating from reality, the artists confront it
directly, transforming the sense of helplessness they encounter into a source
of creative energy.
Their works—where vivid colors, layered temporalities, fragile
materials, and resilient narratives converge—translate familiar scenes of
everyday life into unfamiliar images, exploring the tensions between lightness
and weight, the fleeting and the enduring.
Installation view of 《Dreaming by Day》. Photo: Cheolki Hong, © Wooran Foundation
Occupying and interconnecting the entirety of ART SCAPE 1 at
Wooran, the exhibition unfolds as a sensory journey that begins in the vivid
brightness of the mountain pavilion and gradually descends into the quiet
depths of the waterside pavilion.
The scenes awakened through each artist’s engagement with their
chosen materials extend across the gallery’s walls and ceilings, guiding
visitors toward the heart of reverie.
Where meticulous composition intersects with material
imagination, the exhibition space itself becomes a total environment of
dreaming. In doing so, it offers a renewed way of perceiving and experiencing
the everyday world that surrounds us.
Participating Artists: Kim Jisun, Park Siwol,
Yang Jung Uk, Lim Sungoo, Jeon Hyunsun, Choi Sujin
