SYDNEY.- Aqua Paradiso was an exhibition curated in 2022 by the National Asian Culture Center (ACC). This contemporary art project brought together 11 artists from Asia and around the world to explore the theme of “water” from aesthetic, philosophical, and ecological perspectives. The exhibition took place over a three-month period at ACC in Gwangju, offering a multilayered examination of the primordial nature of life contained within water and its relationship with human society.

Aqua Paradiso now continues in 2026 as a touring exhibition at Korean Cultural Centres in India and Australia. This edition features three of the Korean artists who took part in the original exhibition: Hyewon Kwon, Boo Jihyun, and Eunhae Jung (eco orot). Each uses a different visual language to approach the responsiveness and dynamics of water and the transformative sensibilities of the Anthropocene era.

More than just a resource or part of the backdrop, the exhibition looks at water as a sensory presence and ecological actor. Ancient civilizations viewed water as the emotional product of transcendent deities, harboring feelings of the sublime in the face of its overwhelming majesty. These emotions were erased by industrial civilization, which reduced water to an object to be controlled. Our current situations of climate disaster and ecological collapse are the results of this shift in perceptions.

Aqua Paradiso uses art as a medium to recover these lost perceptions. As it traces the rhythms, waves, and flows of water, it contemplates ecological balance, the place of human beings, and our mutual relationship with nature. Each work raises questions in a different way. How do we approach water? Is a sense of awe still possible? What does it mean to recover our old perceptions?

The exhibition is both an attempt to restore the perceptions associated with water and a form of artistic practice that uses perceptions to forge new relationships. Only when the feeling of the sublime is restored can we recover the sensitivity that will allow us to coexist with life.

BOO Jihyun’s installation, Where is it going, repurposes industrial waste into visual poetry to contemplate the profound cycles of water and ecological resources. Through meditative mechanical movements, this evocative work serves as an ecological warning and a paean to the natural order, conveying at a sensory level how human beings and nature exist in endless living entanglement.

Hyewon Kwon’s video installation, Liquid Vision, presents a speculative documentary from the perspective of an extraterrestrial exploration robot probing Earth's aquatic ecosystems. By guiding viewers through this unfamiliar technological gaze, the work explores new meanings associated with water, light, and touch to redefine the complex sensory relationships between human beings, machines, and the environment.

The eco-artist collective eco orot repurposes marine plastic debris collected from Jeju’s shores into sensory mediums of memory, empathy, and ecological responsibility. Using the symbolic cycle of the mandala, Plastic Mandala creates a space where extinction coexists with return, offering an apology to nature and a prayer for wounded lives. Alongside Ocean Tears, an installation of hundreds of glass bottles filled with microplastics, the collective transforms industrial waste into a profound catalyst for environmental coexistence.

*This exhibition was supported by the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange (KOFICE) as part of “Touring K-Arts” project.