South Korea’s Incheon and Gimpo airports hold art exhibitions that reveal the diversity of its contemporary scene

The three exhibitions – two at Incheon, one at Gimpo – are running to coincide with leading art fairs Frieze Seoul and Kiaf Seoul

Earth’s polar regions inspire one show at Incheon, the other highlights rising media artists; Gimpo’s features sculptures and installations by veteran artists

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Video-art visionary Nam June Paik’s “I Never Read Wittgenstein” (1998) on display as part of the art exhibition “Be Free” at Gimpo International Airport in South Korea. Photo: Courtesy of Arko

Published: 12:45pm, 9 Aug 2023

By Park Han-sol

The terminals of Korea’s two major international airports – Incheon and Gimpo – have transformed into unlikely spaces filled with the country’s contemporary art.

Running to coincide with leading art fairs Frieze Seoul and Kiaf Seoul, which will both take place in September, the three concurrent exhibitions sprawled across the airports provide inbound travellers a peek into the diversity of the Korean art scene.

“Direct from Antarctica and the Arctic to Incheon Airport”, an exhibition staged in Incheon’s Terminal 2 departure hall until November 30, shows seven artists who took part in the annual polar residency programme offered by Arts Council Korea (ARKO) and the Korea Polar Research Institute since 2011.

Kim Seung-young’s “Flag” (2015) depicts the deserted Antarctic landscape. Photo: Courtesy of Arko

These creatives – who either stayed at the King Sejong research station in Antarctica or travelled to the Arctic Ocean aboard Korea’s first icebreaker Araon – reimagine the remote, sparsely inhabited polar regions as eye-catching media pieces and installations.

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