Korean Wave

Korean Wave
Photography Exhibition
May 8 - 30

TR1 Exhibition Centre
Väinö Linnan aukio 13, Finlayson, Tampere
Open: Tue-Fri 9am-5pm, Sat-Sun  11am-6pm (Mon closed)
On Fridays free admission

Lue näyttelyn esittely suomeksi - read the presentation in Finnish (link to our blog in Finnish)

One of the partner delegations visiting our International Week is the group of professors and students coming from the Chung-Ang University, the Korean top university for photography.

From "whatever" by Kim Minjeong

The guests bring with them the Korean Wave photography exhibition. The exhibition has already been shown last year at Month of Photography in Bratislava, Slovakia and will be seen later this year at Galerie Lampingstrasse, Bielefeld, Germany

Professor Walter Bergmoser, curator of the exhibition:


"Korean Wave is usually connected to popculture and soap-operas. Althought the
expression “Korean wave” might not be known very well in the western part of the world, it had and still has a strong influence in whole Asia like Japan, China and South East Asia.

Nowadays it becomes more and more known to the rest of the world. It has even spreat
further to countries like South America, Russia, Hungary atc. It started in the late 1990s and improved the country‘s image considerably. The impact was so strong that it even caused some backlashes, some countries had difficulties to accept the popularity of the “korean wave”.

Though “Korean Wave” may not so strongly be connected to fine-arts, I see a potential of the same impact in the Korean photography of the new generation as in its original field. The images in this exhibition are made by young photographers from the Chung-ang University, the Korean top university for photography.

The artists are showing us their guilts, fears and hopes in a very personal way. But they also explore the contemporary Korea in a genuine combination of western influence and Korean identity. Confucianism with its boundaries of inner world and outer shame,
From "swallow" by Kang Dayoung
the “losing face” and filial piety are still strong in the Korean society, whereas the technical standards are far ahead from us in daily life."

The artists:

Hong Bonggi
Kang Dayoung
Kang Seulgi
Kim Jihye
Kim Minjeong
Kwon Jihyun
Park Serry
Park Siyeon