Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul is presenting "Inside Other Spaces: Environments by Women Artists, 1956–1976," an exhibition that reconstructs immersive environmental artworks by 11 pioneering women artists. Originally curated in 2023 at Haus der Kunst Munich and later shown at MAXXI in Rome and M+ in Hong Kong, the show features restored pieces including Judy Chicago's "Feather Room" (filled with 136 kg of white goose feathers), Jung Kangja's "Muchejeon" (restored after 56 years), Lygia Clark's "House Is Body: Penetration, Ovulation, Germination, Expulsion," and Marian Zazila, La Monte Young, and Jung Hee Choi's "Dream House: Environment of Sound and Light" (shown in Asia for the first time).
The exhibition matters because it rewrites art history by highlighting women artists who were central to developing environmental art—an early form of today's immersive and participatory exhibitions—yet were largely forgotten. By reconstructing fragile, often-dismantled works from the 1950s-1970s and including artists from Asia, Europe, and Latin America, the show challenges the male-dominated narrative of minimalist and conceptual art, while also restoring politically suppressed works like Jung Kangja's "Muchejeon," which was forcibly removed in 1970 on grounds of being political propaganda.