Malaysian female artist Yee I-Lann, who is participating in the exhibition Encounters to commemorate the 60th anniversary of ROK-Malaysia diplomatic relations, capitalizes on this forum’s significance through TIKAR/MEJA, a series of approximately 50 woven items that were created in partnership with the indigenous residents of Sabah (Yee’s hometown). Through large woven artworks created over a period of 18 months (according to traditional weaving techniques) by Yee and residents of small village communities throughout Sabah, Yee brings to life the region’s historical memories and contradictions. This social collaboration project, which has now established itself as a key source of economic income for residents, provides local women (who have thus far been alienated both socially and economically) with not only the opportunity to create art but also a new value system for their lives, a sense of self-worth, and bonds of solidarity.

Ho Tzu Nyen is one of Singapore’s most representative artists who spotlights significant events in Korea’s 20th century history from an anthropological perspective. His new animation work produced as part of GB(Gwangju Biennale) Commission 2020, 49th Hexagram was produced by an animation studio in a country that remains anonymous. The work is also a product of collaboration between Korean musicians and a sound engineer. Through such collaborations, Ho demonstrates the power of cross-regional and crossdisciplinary cultural exchanges, while suggesting innovative ways to interpret the past.

Young In Hong’s Double Encounter is an installation artwork that features statues from several parts of the world (Korea, England, France, China, and Southeast Asia) and the faces of ordinary citizens that the artist captured in photographs on a white cotton sheet as an embroidery. Through this work, Hong – who, based in England, works in multiple mediums–dissembles the power structures expressed by historical memorials while posing questions about Korea’s social order and how this order is expressed, thereby “overlapping” histories that vary in terms of time and place. The ghost-like shadows reflected onto the opposite wall by the light installed in front of the curtain create an immaterial space that actively draws in the viewers.