The term ‘Ghost’ refers to calling upon lonely ghosts omitted from the records of history in order to carefully listen to their sorrow. Through such calling, we will look upon the modern and contemporary history of Asia, mainly of the regions that have seriously suffered. ‘Ghost’ is also linked to ‘tradition.’ Asia is the birthplace of Buddhism, Confucianism, Shamanism, Taoism, Hinduism and it is still under deep religious influence. The exhibition focuses on how contemporary artists newly discover the traditions of such spiritual culture, and how they invent new culture in such an atmosphere. We wish for the ghosts that have been chased away by modern science to return through media, the alliance of media (art) and medium (psychic).

The term ‘Spy’ is a keyword chosen to bring attention to the particularly serious experiences of colonization and the Cold War, lived by Asia. The immense violence experienced together by East Asia and Southeastern Asia had resulted in war as well as extreme mutual social distrust; this situation is still greatly influential in this region. The exhibition focuses on the local diversity of the Cold War, which cannot be seen as simply a competition between the U.S.A and the Soviet Union over hegemony. The ‘spy’ theme is explored in a vast range of subjects including taboo, asylum, the hacking of banks’ computer networks, and successful movies. Furthermore, we will be able to witness how the creations of media artists applying code interpretation, information and communication methods look similar to ‘spy’ actions, and how they can totally reverse related values.

‘Grandmother’ is the witness who has endured and lived the ‘Era of Ghosts and Spies.’ The recently resurged conflict among Asian countries concerning the issue of comfort women reminds us once again of the fact that women exist at the core of the harm suffered by colonization and war. On the other hand, in traditional Korean culture, grandmothers were associated with the image of a woman praying to the Divinity of Heaven and Earth for the benefit of her posterity, with a bowl of fresh water in front of her. Probably, ‘grandmother’ is a powerless being against authority, but the endurance and compassion represented by the traditional image of the grandmother can be reflected upon as an active value surpassing such power in the moral sense. In this exhibition, grandmothers appear as themselves, not as the wives of grandfathers, nor the grannies of their grandchildren. With regards to history, dementia is rather suffered by the young.