Open Theme nominee

Korea is a divided nation. It became independent 80 years ago at the end of World War II, but it was divided into the South and the North. Now, they cannot travel to each other, but there are many people whose siblings and families are separated because their hometown is in the North. There is a barbed wire fence along the border from the eastern sea to the western end, and military forces are concentrated toward each other, so it is always tense. In no case can civilians approach. I hope that the axe in the hand of a farmer who is farming closest to the border will finally break the barbed wire and allow them to travel freely like the birds that live there.

'Yoonyong Rah' is an artist who began to focus on the formal beauty of urban landscapes and presented his work by recognizing the units that make up the city as individual buildings. He started taking photos to record his travels, and through his long experience, he published three travel photo books. Currently, his interest in various social elements that make up the premise of the city can be easily seen in his works. His exhibition activities include numerous group exhibitions and the recent 2023 Seoul Arts Center Special Exhibition (Photography in Contemporary Art), 2024 France Arles Photography Festival, and 2024 Seoul Arts Center Special Exhibition (Metaphotography - The DNA of Photography, Augmentation and Transformation of Photography), and he is currently working on his next work while carefully contemplating his work.