As a continuous sponsor and main supporter of next generation Korean photographers, The Museum of Photography, Seoul has publicly received and reviewed portfolios produced by Korean artists in their 30~40s since the beginning of 2015. This year, an opportunity of exchange with Scandinavian photographers under a common theme is given by the Museum to 5 Korean artists who were either already introduced via exhibitions from the past 3 years, or newly chosen for their portfolios. Although each artist is from a different environment and has varying experiences, it will be interesting to see what kind of sentiments these differences in their views will bring. Titled 'Nature as a Playground', the exhibition will share their perspectives and thoughts on the era and will be a foundation for photographic exchange between Korean and Scandinavian artists which was a rare occasion until now.

The exhibition was also participated by two collaborating curators—Pirkko Siitari, exhibition director of Helsinki Art Museum (HAM) and Director Beate Cegielska from Galleri Image, a photography institution located in Aarhus, Denmark. The Museum has corresponded with these two curators and their agencies through different routes such as exhibitions and workshops in the past. While discussing collaborative projects with them, the idea had occurred to intersect the views of those talented artists on how people relate to nature and what are their attitudes towards it, which is in fact an inevitable theme to the modern world. It will be very interesting to see the stories on nature told through the photographs, by those who each have adapted to different environments. As exhibited artists are all already recognized for their work in the field, the exhibition focused on showing how they connect to each other and creating tension as the works come together in one place for the first time, rather than trying to introduce the works of individual artists.

Starting from this first exhibition in Korea, the Museum intends to move onto international travelling exhibition with the help from Scandinavian agencies, and promote talented Korean artists globally.

Along with the exhibition, a photo book will be published with the exhibited works of the 11 artists. On the opening day Artists Talk is planned and it will be an interesting discussion on the theme of 'nature', by the Korean artists and the 4 Scandinavian artists who will be visiting Seoul for the exhibition.