Theme Exhibition

The exhibition brings together photographs documenting the filming sites of three films:
12.12: The Day(2023), Snowpiercer(2013), and Oldboy(2003). Beyond the finished scenes on screen, even in the moments when filming had stopped, these photographs capture the gaze of still photographers who never put down their cameras. This marks the first time that the festival has presented still photography as an independent exhibition. The three participating artists—Noh Joo-han, Lee Jae-hyuk, and Han Se-jun—each turn their gaze toward a different subject: objects, worlds, and people.

Noh Joo-han looks not at the people on the set of 12.12: The Day(2023), but at the spaces they occupied. Beyond blurred silhouettes, a calendar and operation map coming into focus, a telephone receiver, and scattered lights evoke the atmosphere of the night of December 12, 1979.

Lee Jae-hyuk records a world constructed within the cramped passenger cars of Snowpiercer(2013). The train built in a studio in Prague holds a different order and atmosphere in each car, and what he left behind was not simply a set, but a miniature world constructed one car at a time.

Han Se-jun turns his gaze to the people of Oldboy(2003). The actors’ passion, still burning even after filming has stopped. The director’s face, fixed on something beyond the frame. His camera, which began with documentary photography, ultimately returns to people even on a film set.

Most of the works on display are previously unreleased stills that have never been made public. Moving beyond the usual criteria for promotional images, the three artists personally selected and sequenced the photographs, allowing audiences to encounter the film sets as reconstructed through the photographers’ gazes.

Special Exhibition — 30 Years of Film Makeup by Song Jong-hee: A Record of Time Built on Repetition and Restraint

This special exhibition traces the 30-year journey of film makeup artist Song Jong-hee through her studio and film sets. It follows the process through which a character in a script is brought to life on an actor’s body. Featuring working tools, conceptual sketches, on-set materials, and the evolution of characters, the archive demonstrates that makeup is not merely a physical transformation, but an essential process of building a character’s state and narrative.

If still photographs capture the moments when filming pauses, this exhibition unfolds the fleeting time of makeup—an ephemeral art form that is erased and disappears once filming is over. By examining the preparation, repetition, and traces of the hands behind the finished scenes, the exhibition invites audiences to look anew at the depth of film makeup as a craft.