Regardless of Nationality deals with the fluidity of the notion of nationality and plays with the idea of how migration can transform a country and how a country can transform its migrants. A kind of antique- futuristic mural consists of various framed laser prints decorated with silver leaf, which could resonate with repair techniques such as decorating broken ceramics. The images show variations of maps and divers on different backgrounds with scrawls of unclear words in a fictitious Latin and Korean- looking alphabet, and stamps possibly indicating any contracts. Regardless of Nationality intends to provoke the question of what is homeland, nationality, and internationality and directly addresses the issue of the non-eligibility of foreign artists for public funding in Korea by asking for more “fluid“ and inclusive regulations. All images were generated using Stable Diffusion AI fed with the figure of the diver and various prompts from The 42nd Session of the Universal Periodic Review Republic of Korea_Report on the Cultural Rights of Migrants by Park Kyong Ju (Founder of the DAKA, https://www.daka.or.kr/) DAKA is a non-profit organization, in which I had the honor of being one among other directors helping to promote cultural diversity and protection of foreign artists, students, and art school graduates. Whether the exhibited mural speaks of the past or the future is still an open question.
exhibition view, Fluid Ground, Alternative Space LOOP,2023, Seoul
Tomb of the Diver, Detail from the underside of the top slab of the grave, showing a man diving into wave