Mae Nan Guk Juk: Diasporic Memories Formed in Clay

Frank Jimin Hopp explores diasporic memories of Korean migration to Germany in the 1960s–70s through video interviews, collaborative ceramics, and a living archive. About In the 1960s and 1970s, as part of two recruitment agreements between Germany and South Korea, thousands of South Koreans came to the Federal Republic of Germany—which was facing a shortage of skilled workers—to work as miners and nurses. Although their labor contributed significantly to the economic development of the Federal Republic of Germany, their life stories remain largely marginalized in cultural debates about migration to this day. With »매난국죽 Mae Nan Guk Juk: Diasporic Memories Formed in Clay«, the Korean-German artist Frank Jimin Hopp takes this gap as the starting point for an artistic exploration. Through interviews with members of this first generation, Hopp reconstructs memories of migration, caregiving, loss, friendship, and new beginnings. Accompanying these video works was a collaborative artistic process that resulted in a multitude of ceramic objects. The time-intensive process of shaping the ceramics creates space for narratives, activates biographical memories, and translates them into a material form. The exhibition presents diasporic memory as a living archive that is continually expanded and shaped through narratives, encounters, and artistic practice. The title refers to the four noble plants—plum blossom, orchid, chrysanthemum, and bamboo—which, in East Asian visual tradition, symbolize resilience, dignity, maturity, and steadfastness, among other qualities. In the exhibition, they become symbols of memory, survival, and the transmission of diasporic experiences. Curated by Eylem Sengezer. Read more Toggle Sculpture Mixed media Installation