sren eun young jung. resistant theatre

With resistant theatre, the Württembergischer Kunstverein presents a comprehensive solo exhibition by the South Korean artist siren eun young jung. 

jung, who was represented in the Korean Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2019, is among South Korea’s most influential video and queer-feminist artists. At the heart of the exhibition is the latest and concluding part of her theatre trilogy: the three-part, visually and aurally intense video installation resistant theatre, which is being presented outside of Korea for the first time.

The trilogy, shown in its entirety by the Kunstverein, is based on the artist’s long-standing engagement with Yeoseong Gukgeuk—a musical theater genre popular in South Korea in the 1950s, in which all roles, including male characters, are played by women. Building on this, jung develops queer-feminist forms of narration and action in her performances, videos, and archive installations that move beyond Western discourses.

The first part of the trilogy, trans theatre, is dedicated to the earliest generation of performers of male roles in Yeoseong Gukgeuk, their experiences, and archives. deferral theatre, the second part, was created in close collaboration with contemporary artists from the LGBTQIA+ community and explores questions of performativity and representation as well as of the appropriation of tradition. jung liberates Yeoseong Gukgeuk from its patriarchal attributions and instead reframes it as an imaginary origin of queer cultural practices.

resistant theatre now brings the current political agency of marginalized individuals to the forefront and focuses on the movements, rhythms, gestures, and choreographies of bodies in resistance within public space: on fundamental forms of protest such as singing and shouting, flags and picket lines, rallies and marches. The installation interweaves documentation of demonstrations and their stylized reenactments—as well as bodies and the city, spaces of power and precarious spaces, music and sounds. The sound is defined by the beats of electropop musician KIRARA, with whom jung has been collaborating since 2016.

The background to the third part of the trilogy is the massive protests by the civilian population in South Korea in 2024 and 2025, which were directed against President Yoon Suk-yeol after he declared martial law on December 3, 2024. LGBTQIA+ and trans* groups played a significant role and were clearly visible in the protests. How can queer and trans* politics be permanently inscribed into state processes and everyday practices? What might be possible models for a future queer, non-binary citizenship?

Conceived as a total installation, the presentation of the theatre trilogy is arranged around a deliberately left-open center reminiscent of an open piazza—a place of potential assembly. Curtains and a stage element emphasize the performative contexts of jung’s artistic practice—but can also be read as a reference to the theatricality of cities as well as to the appropriation of public space as a stage for multiple voices. Not least, the exhibition space itself is negotiated between city and stage. Thus, the stage element serves as a platform for various artists, including KIRARA, as well as an open forum for multiple voices.

The platform is one of several venues within and outside the Kunstverein where the exhibition’s extensive program of events takes place. Developed in close collaboration between the artist and the exhibition and program curators, it connects the international contexts of the theater trilogy with local issues and activities.