"A Way to Tomorrow" Appears in the Mirror... The Path to the Museum Becomes a Work of Art

National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, Cheongju, to Present “Museum Passage Project” by Artist Duo Rowa Jeong
Two Works Turn Familiar Perspectives Upside Down: A Sentence in a Mirror and a Subtly Shifting Landscape
Video Featuring Four Cheongju Sites, Including Sangdangsanseong Fortress, to Screen on the Museum’s Large Exterior Media Canvas
On View from October 31 through June 2027; Free Outdoor Viewing

Along the path leading to the museum stands a series of panels embroidered with threads in multiple colors. Abstract patterns appear on the front of the panels, which are arranged like a folding screen. But when visitors look into the mirror beside them, an unexpected sentence appears: "A Way to Tomorrow." Patterns that could not be read just moments earlier come together as a sentence in the mirror. As visitors walk toward the work and shift their gaze, the path into the museum itself becomes an artistic experience.

The video work "Still Life_Walk in Cheongju (Sangdangsanseong Fortress)" (2026) by the artist duo Ro and Jeong is shown on the exterior media canvas of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Cheongju. The words "STILL LIFE" appear over a view of Sangdangsanseong Fortress in Cheongju. Through the phrase's dual meaning of a still-life painting and life that continues, the work expresses the passage of time in a landscape that seems frozen. National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea

The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, announced on the 30th that it will present "Museum Passage Project: Rowa Jeong" at its Cheongju branch from October 31 through June 30, 2027.

The "Museum Passage Project" is an outdoor initiative that extends the museum's boundaries beyond its galleries. Works are installed along entrance paths that visitors pass without a second thought and on the exterior walls of buildings, inviting them to see the surrounding landscape from a new perspective.

The participating artist duo, Rowa Jeong, comprises Noh Yunhee and Jeong Hyunseok. The two artists have explored the order of perception that we take for granted by placing everyday objects in unfamiliar settings and creating disjunctions between language and images.

The exhibition features two works: the installation "Passage" and the video work "Still Life." The installation, whose meaning changes with the viewer's movements, and the video, which invites viewers to perceive the passage of time in seemingly still images, expand visual experience in different ways.

"Passage," installed along the entrance path, consists of panels embroidered with abstract images in threads of various colors and arranged at different heights and angles. As visitors walk alongside a folding-screen-like structure that blocks a mirror on the wall, the sentence "A Way to Tomorrow" appears in the mirror, reflected from the backs of the panels.

The sentence in this work is not presented in its complete form from the outset. Scattered letters and abstract shapes appear differently depending on where visitors stand and the direction from which they look. The mirror serves as a device that brings the separate elements together into a single sentence.

The title "Passage" refers both to a pathway and to a passage in a text. In effect, the act of walking along a path becomes an experience of reading a sentence. The phrase "A Way to Tomorrow" also leaves room for new interpretations, as its meaning only emerges when viewers step away from familiar perspectives.

"Still Life" is screened on the large media canvas on the museum's exterior wall. The locations shown are Sangdangsanseong Fortress, Tapdong Yanggwan, Solbat Park, and Chungbuk National University, in Cheongju. The video captures the landscapes of four places where different times and memories have accumulated, from historic sites to spaces used in the everyday lives of local residents.

A mosquito net embroidered with the words "still life" in white thread appears in the video. Trees, buildings, and the surrounding landscape are visible beyond the net, changing subtly as time passes.

In art, the English phrase "still life" refers to a painting of inanimate objects, but it can also be read as "life that continues." Rowa Jeong uses this dual meaning to call attention to the persistence of time and the movement of life even in landscapes that seem motionless.

This work continues the artists' practice of installing mosquito nets in various locations in Korea and abroad, embroidering sentences on them, and documenting them on video. Familiar scenes in Cheongju, too, are transformed into unfamiliar images through the device of letters made with thread on transparent fabric.

The two works move viewers' gaze in different ways. With "Passage," visitors must move their bodies to find the sentence in the mirror; with "Still Life," the longer they look at a scene, the more they notice changes in a landscape that seems still.

Rowa Jeong is an artist duo that has been active in Korea and abroad since 2008. They develop their differing ideas into a single body of work through dialogue and coordination, exploring relationships among objects, the environment, and social conventions.

In 2024, the duo held a solo exhibition titled "Even a Gaze Has Thickness and Density" at Hakgojae Gallery. They have also participated in various exhibitions, including the 2018 Gwangju Biennale and "Lesson 0" at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, Gwacheon, in 2017. Their works are held in the collections of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea Art Bank and the Seoul Museum of Art, among others.

A representative of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, said, "This project offers opportunities to encounter art naturally along the path to the museum and in the exterior spaces of its buildings. We hope visitors will follow Rowa Jeong's works, view familiar landscapes from a different perspective, and discover new meanings they may not have noticed in everyday life."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.