SONGEUN × Unboxing Project: Generative Forms

SONGEUN × Unboxing Project: Generative Forms is a group exhibition bringing together 179 past winners and finalists of the SONGEUN Art Award. The exhibition is organized to mark the 25th anniversary of the award, through which SONGEUN has continuously discovered and supported emerging artists. Presented in collaboration with Unboxing Project (UBP), the exhibition draws on UBP’s practice of commissioning new works by providing artists with a module based on a specific formal framework. For this exhibition, SONGEUN and UBP invited each participating artist to create new works using a box containing four sheets of plywood, each measuring 25 × 25 cm in reference to the 25th anniversary of the SONGEUN Art Award. While all artists begin from the same physical condition, their concepts, relationships, and formal approaches unfold in different directions, giving rise to diverse “generative” variations.

Established in 2022, Unboxing Projec t is an exhibition project led by Minjin Chae, Director of Perspectrum Art Advisory. Reflecting on how the emotional resonance of small works can sometimes leave a deeper and more lasting impression than the awe inspired by monumental scale or spectacle, the project presents works that distill an artist’s practice into a scale that fits within a small box.

For each edition, participating artists are commissioned to respond to a given theme and receive a box with the same framework and dimensions. They then return the box with a small work that encapsulates their artistic practice, which is subsequently “unboxed” and exhibited. By foregrounding the physical journey of art, from the artist’s studio to the exhibition space and ultimately to its audience and collectors, Unboxing Project turns this process itself into part of the exhibition. At the same time, its shared set of constraints brings individual artistic practices into sharper focus while questioning conventional exhibition systems.

Art advisor Minjin Chae has worked closely with numerous artists and collectors since 2003, participating in the process through which major contemporary artworks become meaningful collections. In 2013, she founded Perspectrum Art Advisory, offering tailored advisory services to corporate and private collectors of modern and contemporary art. In 2022, she launched Unboxing Project , highlighting the value of small yet powerful works of art and supporting the ways in which contemporary artists’ practices reach a new generation of collectors.

Admission is free, but please note that registration is required through Naver Booking using a Naver account.