This exhibition marks the second chapter in the ongoing series titled 《The Collapse Manual》. Rather than contemplating an end, the project proposes a gaze beyond collapse, imagining the forms of existence that may newly emerge from what has fallen apart.

Systems we perceive as broken do not remain in stasis. Instead, they transform their structures in response to changing environments, continuing to operate in altered ways. Within such modes of operation, what appears to be a foretold ending may in fact signal the beginning of a new scene unfolding under different conditions.

The participating artists summon and layer preexisting forms, organizing a yet-to-be-defined order of images. Here, collapse functions not as rupture or loss, but as a latent force that prompts the search for new possibilities.

Curated by Juhyun Oh, the exhibition will be presented at AOD Museum. 《The Collapse Manual: Ep.2》 features seven artists: Daeuk Kim, Wunggyu Park, Meekyoung Shin, Jaehong Ahn, Omyo Cho, Miryu Yoon, and Yongbin Lee.

Exhibition Introduction

Text by Hyunjeoung Moon

The word ‘collapse’ comes to mind again. While one might imagine a massive disaster where the world crumbles in an instant, the sensation of collapse is already being felt here and now, not in some distant future. Surrounded by technology, with the value of labor transformed, systems operating blindly toward efficiency, and nature destroyed, we routinely experience continuous crumbling. This collapse is not a sudden event that happened one day, but rather a state that has slowly accumulated within our senses. The feeling of anxiety makes us look back at the past and present while simultaneously imagining a future that has not yet arrived. Perhaps imagining the future is no different from looking back at ourselves in the present.

This exhibition is the second in a series planned under the title The Collapse Manual. This title, which could be literally translated as ‘The Collapse Manual,’ proposes looking not at the end, but at what comes after collapse. While the previous exhibition depicted the landscape after collapse, this exhibition imagines new beings that could emerge from the ruins. Even amidst collapse, where everything seems to have ended, unexpected vitality and change can be captured. Overlapping this are the possibilities of what will settle in the ruins and the potential for generations bridging the past to the future.

Systems we perceive as broken rarely remain static. Instead, they adapt to their environment by altering their form and continuing to function in different ways. This process of adapting to change while passing on the previous to the next generation resembles heredity. This flow repeats across species, cultures, histories, and civilizations as a whole, inevitably generating variation. Moments that seem like a foretold apocalypse can be the beginning of a new scene unfolding under different conditions. The exhibition follows the subtle signs of change that prompt us to imagine a future we have yet to witness, opening up another possibility beyond collapse.

There are moments when seemingly unrelated images overlap, forming life like shapes, prompting us to imagine they might be future beings. This imagination relates less to inventing something entirely new and more to rearranging and connecting images and forms transmitted from the past at the present moment. Participating artists summon and layer existing forms, organizing an as yet unestablished order of images within them. Here, collapse functions not as disconnection or loss, but as a latent force enabling images to form relationships and acquire meaning. Rather than restoring the past, they seek the next possibility within the conditions of repeated collapse. By capturing phenomena we have passed through and placing them upon another timeline, they will make us sense the present anew from a future vantage.

Venue
AOD Museum (1F & B1, Samjung Bldg, 4 Zandari-ro 3-gil, Mapo-gu, Seoul, Korea)

Artists
Daeuk Kim, Wunggyu Park, Meekyoung Shin, Jaehong Ahn, Omyo Cho, Miryu Yoon, Yongbin Lee

Exhibition Dates
January 30 – March 17, 2026

Gallery Hours
Tuesday – Sunday | 10 AM – 6 PM

Website
https://www.aodmuseum.com

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/aodmuseum/

Contact
foundationdalim@gmail.com

About Artists

Daeuk Kim

Daeuk Kim’s work evokes images of enormous flowers, yet as one approaches, one encounters a surface resembling human skin. Starting from the belief that everyone is a mutation, he has explored variations and abnormal phenomena occurring in nature through his series of transformed flowers. The anthropomorphized floral forms prompt reflection on the value judgments, hybridity, and diversity that humans have imposed through nature’s variations.

Wunggyu Park

Wunggyu Park creates images that evoke ambivalent emotions, drawing on the formal qualities found in classical Buddhist paintings of Korea and Japan. Referencing the painting techniques of Oriental art, he has experimented with its formal language, focusing on six approaches: mimicry, composition, form, texture, transformation, and adaptation. His method of combining insects like moths or centipedes, monstrous creatures, or the entrails of a cow reminiscent of the Ten Ox-Herding Pictures with Chinese characters explores an ambiguous sensation and emotion termed ‘negativity’.

Meekyoung Shin

Meekyoung Shin has persistently translated museum artifacts and cultural objects from East and West into the material of soap. Iconography from representative artifacts, such as classical Western sculptures or Eastern ceramics, repeatedly appears in her work. Exhibited across the globe, her soap sculptures have transformed in material state and appearance over time. Leaving room for interpretation that varies across cultural spheres, the work remains perpetually in a state of ‘becoming’.

Jaehong Ahn

Jaehong Ahn explores the material and environment surrounding the body’s senses through painting. His work oscillates between close and distant perspectives of daily life, organizing traces of the body, inner desires, and dream images into form. Beneath seemingly tranquil surfaces, subtle cracks and unease seep through, hinting at moments when seemingly solid worlds tremble. His paintings maintain equilibrium amid collision and isolation, revealing the inner tensions of humanity at the point where reality and illusion coexist.

Omyo Cho

Omyo Cho, inspired by natural forms and neural structures, has pursued sculpture and installation work based on the worldview of his own science fiction novels. His sculptures, primarily using glass, evoke neural networks, prompting imagination of future intelligences yet to arrive. His work, particularly centered on the transfer of memory, expands into reflections on contemporary society’s tendency to vicariously sense and edit others’ narratives.

Miryu Yoon

Miryu Yoon visualizes the materiality and narrative arising from the interaction between a figure and its surrounding environment through painting. While based on photographs taken by the artist, the work focuses less on realistic reproduction and more on recording the impression and texture of a fragmentary moment captured in a specific situation. Staged scenes are arranged across multiple panels; this approach evokes the emotions felt while experiencing the subject, stimulating a personal yet abstract sensation.

Yongbin Lee

Yongbin Lee creates unfamiliar forms reminiscent of living creatures using materials such as metal, leather, and latex. These images, reminiscent of digital games, science fiction, or fantasy, originate in the virtual and fictional yet undeniably stand on solid ground in the exhibition space. Skins of varying textures are draped over wireframe skeletons. Between the skeleton and the epidermis, the internal void. Works with flat skin emerge from the screen to begin life on this earth.

About AOD Museum

ART OF DALIM (AOD) is a non-profit museum guided by the slogan “Art for Life, Life for All.” Moving beyond the focus on specific artists or fame, AOD aspires to be an open stage where anyone can become a creator and everyone can be an audience. We believe that art is not a privilege to be monopolized by a few, but a vital life asset to be shared and experienced by all.

AOD was established through the patronage of Dalim Biotech, a company that has long championed the value that “human life is more precious than profit.” The corporate spirit of Dalim Biotech, which prioritizes life and public interest, extends into AOD’s mission of public service—ensuring that art remains a communal gift for everyone.

(Text and images courtesy of AOD Museum)