LONDON.- Delfina Foundation and the Korean Cultural Centre UK are presenting Power play, an exhibition across both venues featuring solo and newly-commissioned collaborative works which expose, trace and interrogate power dynamics through humour, subversion and provocation.

Curated by Aaron Cezar, Director of Delfina Foundation, Power play takes its cue from Jacques Derrida’s The Politics of Friendship (1994), in which the philosopher approaches the notion of friendship as a way to rethink the political, drawing connections between friendship, citizenship and democracy. Such ideas are particularly pertinent to the activities of the exhibition’s partners: Delfina Foundation, as an international artist residency based in London; KCCUK, which seeks to promote understanding of and relations with Korea in the UK through cultural and educational activities; and SongEun ArtSpace in Seoul, a long-time residency partner with Delfina Foundation, which pioneered the project and staged an iteration of the exhibition in late 2018.

Spanning a wide variety of media, the artworks address relationships between people and the environment, artists and audiences, guests and hosts, individuals and states, and between states themselves. In addition to solo works by all participating artists, the exhibition features specially-commissioned collaborative works by artists who first met whilst in residence at Delfina Foundation exploring the nature of their friendship and the relationship between their respective practices.

The exhibition includes 11 former resident artists of Delfina Foundation: Jungju An (South Korea), Fayçal Baghriche (Algeria/France), Jungki Beak (South Korea), Soyoung Chung (South Korea), Zuza Golinska (Poland), Jeremy Hutchison (UK), Jaebum Kim (South Korea), Bona Park (South Korea), Oscar Santillan (Ecuador/The Netherlands), Jasmijn Visser (The Netherlands/Germany), and Lantian Xie (UAE). QUOTES “Following on its success at SongEun ArtSpace in Seoul, I am happy to bring back 11 of our former resident artists to London for Power play in partnership with the KCCUK. Arising from different years of our residency programme, and across different countries and artistic approaches, this show playfully reveals the power dynamics entangle us all in society.” – Aaron Cezar, Director, Delfina Foundation. Curator of Power play.

“Alongside Delfina Foundation, the KCCUK is proud to present Power play, a group exhibition featuring Korean and international artists. Since 2015 the Delfina Foundation has hosted artist residencies that have been at the forefront of the UK-Korea creative relationship, and this exhibition brings together some of those artists that have been supported by such residencies.”– Jaemin Cha, Curator, Korean Cultural Centre UK.