2. Were we in the right place?

One of the first internship experiences involved the opportunity to travel to Seoul in November 2010 with the Gallery’s director and senior curator.  The purpose of the trip was to meet with representatives of the Australian Embassy in Seoul and Australia Korea Foundation (AKF) who had contributed to funding the exhibition.  In addition, we were to meet with the curators of the Korean partner institution. We hoped the visit would help us to further develop the exhibition thematic, provide an opportunity to meet Korean artists and generally assist in building a closer relationship with the curatorial team at the partner institution.

The partner institution was to be a large multi-venue public arts facility located in a province to the northwest of Seoul, approx 90 min bus ride from the capital.  Like so many highly populated countries in Asia, Korea sought to establish numerous regional satellite cities as a means of spreading opportunities for economic growth and development and alleviating pressure on the Capital’s strained infrastructure. Selected rural towns quickly became the focus of rapid development and urbanisation.  As a part of this process, these cities were bestowed with large, glittering cultural centres.  The Australia Korea Foundation was keen to facilitate unique collaborations in Korea’s satellite cities and so an exhibition with Gertrude seemed like an appropriate fit.

While on paper the arrangement seemed to be in order, there were a few factors that were concerning the Australian curators: 

• The partner institution was located further outside the Seoul art scene than we ideally would have liked.  While the gallery’s facilities were first rate, the regional location potentially limited the exposure the exhibition would receive. 
• The AKF were a funding partner of the exhibition and they had also been intimately involved in brokering the arrangement with the Korean institution.  While we weren’t entirely satisfied, we didn’t want to jeopardise our relationship with the AKF by expressing a concern so early in the relationship.  Nor did we want to negatively impact the AKF’s relationship with the Korean institution. 
• The other concern was that the Korean curatorial team was somewhat unknown and untested. Our travel schedule was tight, and limited funding precluded the possibility regular face-to-face curatorial visits. We would need to build the relationship from the ground up and we weren’t entirely sure we were building in the right place!