Yohan HÀN: Métissage: Solo Exhibition

Yohan HÀN  explores forms of intuitive sensation through the body and action, working across sculptural objects, performance, and media installations. This exhibition, presented across the 3rd and 4th floors of ARARIO GALLERY SEOUL, features over 20 works created between 2022 and 2025. The title of this exhibition, Métissage, is a French term meaning “mixing” or “blending.” It refers to the process in which different elements come together to create new identities and discourses through fusion. HÀN’s practice forges connections between elements rooted in primitive rituals and indigenous belief systems and the sensory experiences shaped by today’s digital media environment. He examines how digital technologies alter our perception of the body, while interrogating the endurance of “physical sensation” in an era where “physical presence is increasingly elusive.” His work centers on the concepts of resonance and sensation, exploring how modes of communication between material bodies are transformed within the digital environment.

One of the key elements in HÀN’s work is the drum, crafted from animal hide. It serves not only as a percussive instrument but also as an instrumental object used in shamanistic rituals across various indigenous cultures. The drum has been regarded as a symbolic instrument that mediates between the visible and invisible realms, as well as the corporeal and the spiritual. It enables communal resonance and ritual communication. Drawing from diverse drum-making traditions, HÀN integrates these techniques into his creative process, using performance to reactivate forgotten gestures and to engage audiences through tactile, embodied interaction. For HÀN, skin is not merely the body’s surface but a sensory threshold—an interface between the inner self and the external world. Through its constant processes of transformation and shedding, the skin becomes a symbol of the body’s ever-shifting boundary. Touch, mediated through the skin, acts as a conduit for sensory experience, allowing people and objects to encounter each other on a deeper, more intimate level. By stitching skin and layering its textures, HÀN evokes physical connection and sensory awakening, inviting viewers into a space of shared vulnerability and embodied empathy. This exhibition showcases a wide range of works that emerge from his ongoing exploration of “constantly experimenting with new forms in the present moment, where the past and future resonate.”