CURA.

For I Have Been Here Before, Amoako Boafo’s first solo exhibition in Asia, the artist and architect come together once again to create a space that is as much about presence as it is about portraiture. Glenn DeRoche, founder of DeRoche Projects, has designed a site-specific installation at the Wooyang Art Museum — an immersive pavilion that deepens the viewer’s engagement with Boafo’s work through spatial rhythm, material memory, and sensory detail.

The collaboration continues a long-standing creative relationship between Boafo and DeRoche, whose past projects include architectural interventions and exhibitions across Accra, London, Vienna, and now Gyeongju. For this latest installation, DeRoche centres three new large-scale paintings by Boafo within a contemplative structure that reimagines a section of the cultural institution as a site of embodied encounter and shared cultural expression.

The installation introduces embroidery as both material and metaphor—a point of connection between Ghanaian and Korean craft traditions. Korean jasu, once reserved for royal garments and domestic textiles, meets the intricate embroidered work found in Ghanaian smocks and ceremonial dress. Both treat the act of stitching as a transmission of memory—an intergenerational gesture that moves from hand to cloth. “The new works in the pavilion explore how clothing can carry meaning by connecting what we wear to identity and tradition,” says Boafo. “I was interested in how these ideas show up in both Ghanaian and Korean culture, and in finding new ways to express that through my paintings.” This cross-cultural thread forms the conceptual foundation of the pavilion.

The architecture itself draws inspiration from the Adinkra symbol Nsaa, representing authenticity and excellence, while its spatial language echoes the inward-facing openness of traditional Korean hanok courtyards.

Visitors are invited into a cyclical experience: first passing through a defined threshold, then engaging individually with each painting, and finally arriving at a culminating moment of stillness and reflection.

DeRoche explains, “Designing this pavilion was about creating a space where stillness could be felt, not just seen. We wanted to offer visitors an experience that slows perception and opens up space for reflection through architecture, material, and memory. By drawing on shared traditions of embroidery from Ghana and South Korea, the space becomes a meeting point between cultures, and between body and art.”

This final moment is anchored by a central bench—recessed and proportioned for rest and gazing—surrounded by softly backlit embroidered linen panels suspended overhead. The scent of stained red South Korean pine drifts through the space, while the floor is adorned with a traditional timber pattern often found in the Hanok homes of the region. A quiet recording of spoken word plays softly, audible only when seated — whispered into the ears of visitors as they gaze at the installation overhead, transforming the space into one of quiet encounter.

More than a display mechanism, the installation serves as a sensory distillation of the exhibition— offering visitors a moment to reflect and engage with Boafo’s portraits through heightened attention and presence. Like embroidery itself, the design is intentional and accumulative. Each gesture—architectural or artistic—builds toward a transcultural moment of resonance.

The exhibition at Wooyang Art Museum marks a new chapter in Boafo and DeRoche’s evolving dialogue between art, architecture, and community—one rooted in memory, made tactile through material, and extended through shared space.