Adonis Syndrome
Seo Ujeong, Jung Choulgue, Ryu Juhang, Līga Spunde
13.09.2025 - 01.11.2025

Curator: Taeho Choi

The term Adonis Syndrome (also known as the Adonis Complex) refers to men’s obsession with their appearance. Adonis, in Greek mythology, was a beautiful youth adored by the goddess of beauty, Aphrodite, and upon his death, was transformed into an anemone. He has long been regarded as a symbol of male beauty.

Korean society is strongly collectivist in nature, where social status, recognition, and one’s identity as a member of a group hold great importance. Accordingly, following new trends is often regarded as an essential part of social adaptation. The distorted consciousness of beauty and obsession with appearance in Korea are phenomena shaped by deep social and cultural contexts - arising from the complex interplay of traditional and modern values. Traditional Korean aesthetics emphasized facial balance, clear skin, and a healthy physique. However, in the modern era, these values have shifted: under the influence of detailed criteria and media, expectations surrounding appearance have become highly specific and rigid.

K-pop, television dramas, and films continually reinforce particular standards of beauty, and these standards evolve at an exceptionally rapid pace. As celebrities maintain appearances considered normative, the general public increasingly strives to follow these ideals. Social pressures regarding appearance generate significant psychological stress, especially among younger generations, for whom social expectations and media-driven beauty standards play a major role in shaping self-perception.

Obsession with appearance, packaged under the term “self-care,” has become a commercialized practice. In Korea, where social evaluation carries great weight, appearance remains a powerful determinant of personal worth. My recent curatorial research has been particularly engaged with body dysmorphic disorder, a social issue observable everywhere but one that takes on heightened significance when combined with Korea’s cultural context. A majority of people believe that appearance is a decisive factor in determining one’s value and success. Korean cosmetic surgery techniques are internationally recognized, renowned for their precision, innovation, and technical expertise, attracting many visitors from abroad seeking such procedures.

Latvia and Korea, while both independent republics, share parallels in history: both declared independence around the First World War, yet the establishment of their nation-states occurred more than fifty years apart. Both nations also experienced dramatic upheavals in relation to larger powers - Latvia with the Soviet Union, and Korea with Japan. These turbulent experiences resonate visibly in the ways that art movements have unfolded within comparable categories in each country’s artistic history. This exhibition, composed of works by four artists from Korea and Latvia, seeks to explore these phenomena. It offers a space where audiences can encounter and reflect on the aesthetic standards of both nations, while also considering the potential for artistic solidarity that emerges across cultures through shared experiences in the realm of art.

Seo Ujeong’s work reconstructs ancient mythological symbols within a contemporary context. Adonis no longer remains a purely mythological figure. Through the juxtaposition of expressionless faces and mechanical devices, the work generates a sense of visual theatricality and psychological tension. The staged settings of laboratories and theatrical spaces in the paintings transform into a hybrid realm where nature, humans, machines, and mythological beings coexist. The scientific and alchemical apparatuses evoke the image of an alchemist’s workshop. While alchemy was once an esoteric practice aimed at transforming metals and discovering eternal life, here it is reimagined as a metaphor for the transformation of the human body and mind.

Jung Choulgue’s practice reveals the cracks and wounds concealed beneath polished surfaces. His use of everyday materials, white shirts and exfoliating cloths, embroidered or inscribed with words, delicately captures the traces of repression and anxiety produced within the social rules of “beauty” and “conformity.” Phrases such as “That day’s sorrow was not mine alone” stitched into fabric, or “Sorry, I’ll change it for you” repeatedly sprayed, may appear as gentle gestures of consolation, but in fact expose the violent language of correction and exclusion.

The phrase “porcelain skin,” commonly used in Korean society, is not merely a compliment to smooth and flawless skin. It is a disciplinary code that defines and simultaneously erases subjectivity, functioning as a social device for evaluating existence through surface. Ryu Juhang’s Temple of the Surface extends this metaphor to the dimension of landscape. The artist assembles dozens of photographs of mountains and forests surrounding Seoul to construct an overwhelming image of primordial forest, vast enough to disorient the viewer’s sense of direction. Within this dense landscape, traces of human civilization - buildings and roads- appear only faintly, paradoxically emphasizing humanity’s relative smallness within nature. Inserted into this forest, a white porcelain bust symbolizes the “discipline of surface” imposed by civilization through its artificially idealized face. Here, AI does not function as the creator but as a tool for recomposing photographic archives and personal records, a medium of form, akin to a brush or camera. The resulting images are not random outputs but the product of intersecting photographic practice, social context, and accumulated data.

Spunde’s project Episodes About Not Knowing – Korean Edition, based on her residency experience in Korea (MMCA Changdong 2024), delicately explores the anxieties surrounding uncertainty and identity. Her recently completed animation, which features a female character, strongly resonates with the exhibition's core themes of bodily obsession and the fragmentation of self-image.

Exhibition is supported by: State Culture Capital Foundation, GroGlass
Special thanks to: Sunblanket Foundation, Noewe Foundation