Proximities: Contemporary Art from the United Arab Emirates
Seoul Museum of Art

Such is the reach of globalized cultural diplomacy that it is nearly impossible for a contemporary museumgoer not to encounter an exhibition intended to “capture” and proselytize a nation’s artistic essence. Although they may be of irreproachable scholarship and impeccable scenographic quality, such shows share the hallmark of being digestibly flattened: predictable in form (archival documents, chronological throughlines) and stealthily didactic in delivery. 

“Proximities,” co-curated by UK-based Maya El Khalil and the Seoul Museum of Art’s Eunju Kim, upended the idiom of the soft power show, principally through sheer exuberance and curatorial density. A by-product of institutional collaboration between the Korean museum and the Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation in the UAE capital, the exhibition might have been a typical standard-bearer for lofty cultural diplomacy goals like “deepening cultural exchange.” Yet “Proximities” cleverly interrogated the potential overlaps between contemporary Korean and Emirati societies—both fast-tracked into prominence against a backdrop of full-throttle technological acceleration and social transformation fueled by capitalistic firepower—in a succession of highly subjective, sometimes cacophonous but consistently surprising chapters, each spearheaded by a different configuration of artist-curators.