Sehwa Museum of Art will hold the exhibition “Solid City – #City#People#Space” from April 21 to August 31, 2021. The last two exhibitions on the city’s theme observed the city from the perspective of a flâneur wandering around the city. They also presented a collection of works holding the lights and colors that make up the exterior of a large city. This exhibition, the third project of the series, will look into a city that is firmly established, the especially microscopic world created by people and spaces in the city of Seoul.

As a large metropolitan city with a population of about 9.6 million, Seoul has a complex shape such as high-rise buildings, large complex apartments, the original downtown preserving the old scene, old residential areas, large and small factory areas, as well as rugged mountains and wide rivers that are difficult to see in other cities. It took only about half a century for Seoul that had been ruined by the Korean War, to achieve intensive development and its present state. Like the time that passed by fast, the people of Seoul experienced the rise and fall in a short time.

The stories of people who had gone through that time as Seoul progressed, declined, and was reestablished slowly piled up. It is tough to survive in the city life only by having growth as a guarantee, but the vitality of Seoul is maintained by the people who dream of uncertain success and work in the city day by day. If a city is postulated as a large building, what fills inside a solid structure will eventually be a story of people, spaces, and reality scattered around. While people suffering from development obsession dig up, build, and repair old Seoul and stimulate the desires of urban people, some creators working in the city discover and create urban stories through artistic activities.

Today, Seoul has entered a multi-ethnic, multicultural society and is swarmed with countless conflicts such as generational discord and the gap between the rich and the poor due to changes in the industrial structure and intensification of the capitalist competition system. To make the matter worse, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic will make life in the city tougher and more challenging. This exhibition will take a closer look at the inner aspects of Seoul through the perspectives and activities of artists who sensitively sense the places with intensifying conflicts, the most underdeveloped, and the places that have lost light. What actually builds the city are the lives and stories of people living with their feet rooted in the alleys of Seoul. It is hoped that the stories about the people and spaces presented in this exhibition will elicit future discourses to create a healthy urban ecosystem so that the city no longer drives people living there into a corner and builds growth engines only by stimulating their desires.