Exhibition content and curatorial expertise to be shared; program expanding to schools and local libraries
The South Jeolla Museum of Art announced Tuesday that "Skin of the Earth," an invitational exhibition by Belgian artist Koen van den Broek, has drawn strong visitor response and is confirmed to travel to the Suwon Museum of Art in Gyeonggi Province in March next year.
The touring exhibition marks a collaboration between the two public museums to share high-quality exhibition content and curatorial expertise, and is expected to expand exchange and cooperation among regional public art institutions.
"Skin of the Earth" is Koen van den Broek's first solo museum exhibition in Asia, presenting 61 works that explore roads, urban surfaces, architectural structures, cracks and shadows through the language of painting.
Throughout the exhibition's run, the South Jeolla Museum of Art has organized a range of companion programs — including lectures, photography sessions and bookmaking workshops — aimed at translating the artist's perspective into direct visitor experience.
Visitors have responded warmly. Many left comments such as "I used to think of gaps and cracks only as flaws or defects, but now I see them in a new light," and "It was refreshing to realize that the roads and walls I pass every day can be subjects of art."
A bookmaking workshop titled "Recording Surfaces," held twice in May and June, drew particularly strong interest from families.
Participants viewed the exhibition, then explored surfaces and landscapes inside and outside the museum through photography before reassembling exhibition leaflets into handmade books. Parents and children worked together to take photographs and complete their books, naturally linking art appreciation with creative activity, and reinterpreted the sense of surface, crack and boundary in Koen van den Broek's paintings through printed images, text and the texture of paper.
Interest in the program has spread beyond the museum. Building on participants' enthusiasm, "Recording Surfaces" was adopted as a group program at Mokpo Girls' High School, and a related lecture was held at Geumho Library in Gwangyang — signs that the initiative is taking root in local educational and cultural institutions.
"I hope this touring exhibition, built on the partnership between the South Jeolla Museum of Art and the Suwon Museum of Art, becomes an opportunity for regional public museums to share and develop outstanding exhibition content together," said Lee Ji-ho, director of the South Jeolla Museum of Art.
"Skin of the Earth" runs at the South Jeolla Museum of Art through July 19, after which it will travel to the Suwon Museum of Art in Gyeonggi Province in March next year.
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