Nanji Residency 20th Anniversary Exhibition: The Origin of Love

About the Exhibition

AMOR EX MACHINA, marking the 20th anniversary of the opening of the Seoul Museum of Art Nanji Residency, is a journey in search of the roots of humanity that remain undamaged even before the vast edifice of technological civilization, proposing that the destination we must ultimately return to lies in love. 'Amor ex machina' is a variation on 'deus ex machina,' meaning that what can save us today, built as we are on technology and mechanical devices, is in the end the foundational ground of love. The exhibition unfolds the archetypes of old stories — the wonder and price paid by the one who stole fire, the loss and transformation of the one who entrusted memory to the river, the struggle of the one who returned in an unfamiliar form — over scenes of today. Through the work of artists who have passed through the Nanji Residency over the past 20 years, it retraces where the power that keeps people beside one another comes from, even in an age when technology continues to reshape the body, perception, and the forms of connection.