Exhibition · Asia Art Archive · Hong Kong
Days We Inherit revisits 1990s Korea through the works of Ahn Kyuchul, Noh Songhee, Oh Inhwan, and Park Sunho. Each artist selects and responds to a date of personal significance in this era, revealing how individual memories and public records are intimately connected. Each day leaves its trace in its own way. Some moments gain a place in history through newspapers, broadcasts, and institutional archives; others linger only in personal memory before quietly fading. An era is shaped by everyday fragments: commuting to school or work, encountering an exhibition for the first time, receiving an unexpected gift, or posting a photo on social media. Days We Inherit does not portray Korea through a single, fixed narrative. Instead, it gathers days chosen by four artists with different ties to 1990s Korea. For Ahn Kyuchul and Oh Inhwan, those years were lived firsthand. Noh Songhee and Park Sunho, born in the 1990s, understand that past primarily through archives and oral histories. An era belongs to more than those who lived it. We inherit it from those who came before us, along with reshaped stories and conflicting interpretations, becoming its new custodians. Days We Inherit continues Asia Art Archive’s 2024 exhibition Another Day in Hong Kong, while reversing its core concept: Whereas the previous exhibition reconstructed one particular day, here, four artists each select a date of personal significance, transforming individual memories into a shared collective heritage. Ahn and Oh look back on days when they sought their own paths in life and art—experiences that shaped the future we now call the present. Ahn recalls conceiving Water from Afar in May 1991 while living in Germany. He was torn between being far from Korea amid political turmoil and the need to find his own artistic language. Thirty-five years after the work’s conception, he revisits the project for Water from Afar II. In Flower Arrangement for Men, Oh similarly returns to an earlier piece, which was…