Seongeun Lee, Naumachia at Caption, Seoul

“Naumachia” by Seongeun Lee, curated by Bronwyn Bailey-Charteris, at Caption Seoul, Seoul, date 03/15/2024-04/13/2024.

The exhibition title Naumachia, referring to large-scale mock sea battles in ancient Roman theatres, initially confronts the issue of water and cities.

Here, water serves as a place and a means, a social metaphor guaranteeing agency. The artist poetically generates the possibility of transformation while reconfiguring the dynamic relationship between water and cities.

Curator Bronwyn Bailey-Charteris has identified the present as the age of water, or the ‘Hydrocene’.

When Lee’s space utilises this concept to unfold the power and potential of water, past forms and phenomena are swept away by waves.

In other words, the ontological volume that was never bestowed upon water, a transparent entity, becomes visible.

Now, this place becomes a space where the body floats, marking the beginning and end of everything.

Text: Minji Chun