National Mental Health Center to hold invitational exhibition to mark Mental Health Day
The National Mental Health Center under the Ministry of Health and Welfare will hold an invitational exhibition titled "A World That Reaches You" at Gallery M on the below-ground first floor of the center, running Tuesday through Oct. 30, to mark World Mental Health Day on Oct. 10, the center announced Monday.
The exhibition was organized around the theme of stripping away prejudice toward mental illness and fostering mutual understanding by looking closely at the unique inner world each person carries. Four artists — Kim Hyeok-jong, Kim Seok-hyeon, Lee Rae-suk and Jang Hui-na — were invited to take part.
All four are artists with lived experience of mental illness who are based in Jeju, and they prepared the exhibition together with Nuguna, a disability arts organization.
The show goes beyond simply confronting difference, inviting viewers to look deeply into the distinct inner world of each individual artist. For the four participants, art serves as a language for expressing their inner lives and connecting with the world, and the exhibition brings their four separate inner worlds together in a single space.
"I hope this invitational exhibition, held in the spirit of Mental Health Day, becomes an opportunity to close the distance between people and deepen our understanding of one another," National Mental Health Center Director Nam Yun-yeong said.
Admission is free and open to all. The gallery is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is closed on weekends and public holidays. Further details are available on the National Mental Health Center's website.
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