MAY DAY MAY DAY MAY DAY
메이데이 메이데이 메이데이
2024.7.12.-9.8.
Multicultural Spaces 111CM (Suwon)
Participating Artists|Black Jaguar, Bomroya, Critical Hit, Haejung Jung, Listen to the City, Sumin Song, Sungjin Song, Yeoreum Jeong
Curator|Seul Bi Lee
Assistant Curator|Jiye Park
Project Manager|Jihyun Kim
Installation|Tnknmke
Media Equipment|Allmedia
Graphic Design|Paika(Suhyang Lee, Jihoon Ha)
Photo|Munch studio
Hosted by |MIHAKGWAN(Philosopher's Stone)
Sponsor|Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Korea Arts Management Service
Collaborators|Suwon Cultural Foundation
Admission Fee|₩ 10,000
Curator’s Note: Misaligned and Fading Where Cries Veer Away
Seul Bi Lee (director at Philosopher's Stone/ independent curator)
This exhibition aims to reveal the paradox of disasters that, in a kind of camouflage, have hidden themselves and become normalized in our everyday lives. In doing so, it seeks to bring attention to persons situated outside systems, reexamining the way we think about disasters. Through the works of eight teams of visual artists, the exhibition revisits issues of alienation, discrimination, exclusion, and neglect, reminding us once again that disasters are always present and already in progress in the current moment and time we live in.
The paradox of disaster as a cry for help
This word, like an echo, must be repeated three times to have an effect. The international distress signal “Mayday” is repeated three times to distinguish it from “May Day,” which refers to International Workers’ Day. This phrase, used in life-threatening situations for maritime and aviation pilots as well as astronauts, originally comes from the French phrase m’aidez (“help me”), which was misheard as “Mayday” in English and has since become widely adopted. Ironically, it is through this misheard word—like tinnitus or auditory hallucinations—that we can signal an emergency.
But what happens when this phrase is transcribed into writing? The exhibition title, MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY, fails to convey either the urgency of the distress signal or the meaning of May Day as a labor holiday. What it transmits is the hollow shell of syllables, which, written entirely in uppercase, lose any sense of urgency or significance. This reflects the paradox of cries for help that we see, hear, and experience around us easily, but also pass by just as easily. The paradox of disaster lies in the fact that it is already embedded within our surroundings.
Disaster between chance and inevitability
As viruses, climate crisis, wars, and terrorism along with various ideological clashes between nations expand the scope of social and man-made disasters, we still tend to think of disasters as either something that will come in the future or as events that occur by chance. In this process of consuming and reflecting on disasters in ways that exclude its present reality, we fundamentally lose a sense of its immediacy. This exhibition focuses on disasters that have become part of the everyday. Rather than natural disasters or sudden, unfortunate accidents, it highlights disasters we encounter in our surroundings—discrimination, alienation, indifference, and the violence of neglect. Rebecca Solnit, in her book A Paradise Built in Hell (2009), draws attention to the emergence of “disaster communities” in this era of global catastrophes. Inspired by this idea, the exhibition seeks to explore the manifestation of disaster communities. These spontaneously formed communities in the face of disaster carry the potential for an alternative society. In disaster situations, human nature itself is rediscovered, and the role of the citizen as a member of society is reconsidered. Is this by chance or by necessity? It is in these “accidental” moments of disaster that humanity reemerges—inevitably.
Political and Social Disasters
Disaster is inherently political. Every catastrophe rooted in personal experience is intertwined with broader social issues. Problems like discrimination and violence against immigrants, refugees, people with disabilities, women and other marginalized groups intersect with national concerns such as environmental pollution, the climate crisis, war, and terrorism, all of which operate politically within society. In modern society, the contemplation of disaster is absorbed into capitalism and political convenience, masking its present reality. Just as we predict the northward path of typhoons every summer, disasters observed within predictable boundaries differ from the kind of disaster this exhibition aims to address. Disaster does not suddenly approach, nor does it flee. Disaster is ever-present, as it always has been, yet politics consistently ignores it while treating it as something distant and beyond immediate concern. By turning a blind eye to the reality unfolding before us, politics has stopped examining what is actually happening. This exhibition takes a look at the present, inviting reflection and highlighting those who exist on the margins of the social system—the individuals who are politically overlooked.
In a society that has grown accustomed to discrimination, alienation, neglect, and indifference, minorities - women, refugees, migrants, people with disabilities, homeless and others - are never truly recognized, unless they form a collective unit. The eight teams of participating artists, using various media such as video, painting, drawing, and installation, present works that not only construct their individual visions but share a common purpose: to reveal what lies outside the system by addressing the normalization of disaster. In the misaligned, fading spaces where cries veer away, the call for help begins, and disaster is always present there.













