The National Asian Culture Center (ACC) in Gwangju has announced Korean artist YoungEun Kim as the winner of its 2026 ACC Future Prize. Established in 2023, the biennial award is dedicated to supporting experimental artists who explore future societal structures and the intersections of humanity, nature, and technology through diverse media.

Born in 1980 in Seoul, Kim is a multidisciplinary artist who works across sound, video, and installation. Her practice reframes archival audio and the act of listening as relics of sociohistorical narratives, engaging with diasporic experiences and themes of modernization, migration, and militarization.

In a statement, the jury noted that “[Kim’s] project poses essential questions: ‘What have we failed to hear? And how should we ethically confront that which remains unheard?’ This initiative reinterprets colonization, history, and memory through sound art and aims to foster new meditative practices of listening in contemporary art.” 

Kim Sangug, executive director of the ACC, added: “Her efforts to broaden the scope of contemporary Asian art and to contribute to future creative discourse are highly commendable.”

As part of the prize, the ACC will provide studio spaces, digital media infrastructure, and a production team to assist in Kim’s creative endeavors, culminating in a major solo exhibition that will take place at the ACC Creation Space 1 from August 2026 to January 2027.

Iain Cocks is an editorial intern at ArtAsiaPacific.