Public Programs @ the Institute
Series: Korea Initiative
Architectural Curating Workshop with Hyungmin Pai, Professor of Architecture, University of Seoul
Curating Uncertainty: North Korea to Climate Change
Tuesday, November 18, 2025, 2:00-4:00pm
In-person only, open to the IFA community, NYU Department of Art History students, and area graduate students.
In-person RSVP for May Adadol Ingawanij's talk
How can exhibitions tackle the seemingly impenetrable? Join Hyungmin Pai for an exploration of the curatorial process as a creative force capable of addressing complex, uncertain subjects through architectural exhibition.
Drawing from two groundbreaking projects—Crow's Eye View: The Korean Peninsula (Golden Lion winner, 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale) and Re:Folly (Gwangju Biennale Foundation, 2022-2024)—Professor Pai will discuss how curating can forge unprecedented connections across disciplines, materials, and communities.
Crow's Eye View brought together scholars, architects, designers, and artists to create the first exhibition examining both North and South Korean architecture, navigating the radical inaccessibility of the North through innovative curatorial strategies.
Re:Folly addressed the vast complexity of climate change by embedding research and development into every stage—from seaweed-based bioplastics to shell lime—creating livable spaces grounded in circularity and bio-regional approaches through uncommon collaborations between laboratories, craft studios, and builders.
These projects demonstrate how exhibitions can enable work that specialized research alone cannot achieve, creating experimental networks that transcend institutional conventions.
Hyungmin Pai, Professor at the University of Seoul, is an architectural historian, critic, and curator. Twice a Fulbright scholar, he received his Ph.D from the History, Theory, and Criticism program at MIT. His numerous publications include The Portfolio and the Diagram, key reading in architecture schools around the world, Key Concepts of Korean Architecture, and Sensuous Plan: Architecture of Seung H-Sang. He was artistic director of the inaugural Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism and the 5th Gwangju Folly. He was twice curator of the Korean Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, which in 2014, was awarded the Golden Lion for Best National Pavilion. His recent work has focused on climate change, particularly the material networks of production, consumption, and waste. His Climate Museum: Life and Death of our Home received the Red Dot Award for its innovative and sustainable exhibition design.
This program is made possible by The Korea Foundation.
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