New photographs and videos featuring senior performers explore how advertising shapes personal values and social aspirations

Artist Kim Min-kyung will present her solo exhibition “To Construct a Facade” at Bucheon Art Bunker B39 from Oct. 31 to Nov. 7.

The exhibition examines the relationship between individual lives and the social structures that shape desire in contemporary South Korea. Working with advertising and commodification, Kim considers how ordinary objects acquire value and how consumer culture encourages people to pursue particular images of success, happiness and identity.

Kim collaborated with senior performers to produce fictional advertisements. Rather than promoting actual products, the staged campaigns provide a framework through which the participants reveal their desires, values and beliefs accumulated over the course of their lives.

The exhibition comprises 10 new works, including the videos “To Construct a Facade” and “Apple Painting,” alongside eight photographs. The works focus not only on the finished advertising images but also on the individuals who appear within them, drawing attention to the distance between a socially constructed exterior and the personal histories behind it.

The title refers to the process of creating a public-facing image. Here, a facade is not merely a false surface. It is also something produced through social expectations, economic systems and repeated acts of self-presentation. By employing the familiar visual language of advertising, Kim asks how much of an individual’s apparent identity is self-determined and how much is assembled in response to external standards.

The exhibition continues Kim’s investigation into the relationship between everyday customs and broader social systems. After studying and working in Germany for 15 years, the artist returned to live in South Korea last year. Her previous solo exhibition, “On Eggs,” held at Hall 1 in 2025, began with an examination of German breakfast culture.

In the new exhibition, Kim shifts her attention to daily life in South Korea. Objects and habits that initially appear commonplace become points of entry into questions about consumption, ageing and the beliefs people develop while moving through changing social conditions.

“To Construct a Facade” is presented as part of the Bucheon Cultural Foundation’s 2026 programme supporting collaboration between artists and businesses.

The exhibition is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and closed on Monday. Admission is free. A reception will be held from 3 to 4 p.m. on Nov. 5.

Bucheon Art Bunker B39 is located at 53 Samjak-ro, Ojeong District, Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province. The bunker exhibition space is difficult to access by wheelchair because of its architectural structure.

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Maria Kim sayart2022@gmail.com