JEJU HAENYEO : DISAPPEARING WORLDS

WHY VISIT

In the summer of 2025, five artists traveled to Jeju. They shared meals with the Haenyeo, sat together at the bulteok, exchanged stories, and observed the tools, discipline, and bodily memories of time. Thus, this exhibition began from two weeks of shared experiences with the Haenyeo. Céline Park examines the hierarchy and silence embedded within the Haenyeo community, Kim Yi-hwa explores the survival of 'nomadic Haenyeo' in the face of climate change, and Moon Su-hyuk critiques how tradition is consumed as a language of capital. Son Ji-min reconsiders the labor of Haenyeo through the lens of femininity and care, while Choi Mi-jin investigates the transmission of knowledge through oral narratives and relationships. 《JEJU HAENYEO: DISAPPEARING WORLDS》 begins in Seoul in November 2025 and continues in Jeju. The Haenyeo, once the mainstay of livelihood, have become symbols of tourism and consumption. Rather than recreating this surface image, the exhibition poses a question: In what forms do the Haenyeo’s bodies, tools, discipline, silence, ecology, and desires persist today, and who is now voicing this legacy anew?