All Under Heaven

How deeply does the state interfere in private life? The exhibition focuses on the tension between family and state in 20th-century China and Korea – between ideology, welfare and control. On display are photographs by Chinese artist He Chongyue, which reveal historical propaganda slogans on the one-child policy in rural regions, alongside impressive positions on adoption and gender policy in South and North Korea from the museum’s own collection. A central work is Family by Mao Tongqiang. The photographic series paradigmatically illustrates the transformation of Chinese family structures: from the production communities of the past to consumer-oriented, mobile and often smaller households. Jane Jin Kaisen’s poetic-political video work The Woman, The Orphan, and The Tiger addresses the transgenerational traumas of Korean women between colonial rule, military violence and transnational adoption. Mirae kate-her Rhee addresses a related theme in K-Orphan Style, a work developed specifically for the exhibition, in which she reflects autoethnographically on her own adoption from South Korea to the USA. Prints by Siren Eun Young Jung question traditional gender roles and open up queer perspectives on memory, belonging and identity.

A guided tour with curator Maria Sobotka, Museum of Asian Art