Photography Seoul Museum of Art

South Korea’s more recent history is immortalized in countless photographs and images testifying to the peninsula’s transformation in less than a century from a distant agricultural country into a world benchmark for high-tech and innovative design. This precious visual testimony has been collected and preserved to enable the study and contextualization of South Korea’s extraordinarily swift development. 

The competition for the design of the Photography Seoul Museum of Art (Photo SeMA) was won by architect Mladen Jadric and his Vienna-based Jadric Architektur, in partnership with Yoon Geun Ju of the Seoul-based 1990uao. Two factors led to the choice of a European architectural firm for an Asian context derives: first, an institutional openness to international architectural and cultural influences, and second, an acknowledgement of Jadric’s many years teaching and interacting with universities in South Korea and China.

A modern-day Marco Polo, Jadric Architektur’s Vienna studio not only has in-depth knowledge of the Korean context but also a mindset open to eclectic interpretations that mingle Mittel-European, Asian, and other approaches. In addition, partnership with 1990uao studio in Seoul was not just a matter of having a local unit to help deal with the complexities of coordinating the many different professionals involved. It was also key to ensuring the project respected and seamlessly fitted into the local context. The design process was founded on the consideration of what architecture and photography have in common. Both reside at the intersection of art, science, and everyday life. There is no place that has not been photographed or where a building has not been erected, and no other art forms are so dependent on light for their creation and evolution. In addition, while photography and architecture both immortalize one moment in infinite time, their documentary value over time is fundamental. Light...

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