The Italian Cultural Institute in Seoul, under the auspices of the Italian Embassy in Seoul and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the Pistoletto Cittadellarte Foundation, and the Gyeonggi Tourism Organization are pleased to announce the organization of the first edition of the Third Paradise DMZ Forum: The Art of Demopraxy in Korea, an Art of Demopraxy event to be held on September 29 and 30, 2025, at Camp Greaves in Paju, South Korea.

The collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute has also led to the establishment of a scholarship for the 2026/2027 academic year for the three-year program in Public Art or Sustainable Fashion at the Pistoletto Foundation's UNIDEE Academy in Biella (near Milan, Italy), dedicated to a student from Korea.

Located in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on the border between South and North Korea, specifically at Camp Greaves, a former American military camp transformed into an educational site and museum by the Gyeonggi Tourism Organization, Third Paradise DMZ—curated by Valentina Buzzi and Soik Jung—is both a forum and a participatory art installation involving at least 31 Korean civic organizations aligned with the United Nations' sustainable development agenda.

The forum will span two days and focus on the themes of Inclusion and Ecology through the overarching themes of Loneliness, Borders, Care, Resilience, and Practice, the latter understood as a concrete strategy for achieving the other four goals. These themes converge toward Diversity and ultimately lead to Peace (in the broadest sense). The event will bring together over 40 professionals from 31 Korean organizations working in the fields of Inclusion, Ecology, and Peace, helping to imagine and build a sustainable future. These will include civic activists, social entrepreneurs, field experts, researchers, and members of the Korean community in the DMZ, all aligned with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda and invited through an initial phase of work: Mapping.

During the forum, participants, divided into five working groups according to their focus (the so-called "construction sites"), will share ideas on the five main themes and develop a common Action Plan, the Forum Charter. This plan will serve as a joint declaration, representing the multiplicity of voices and concrete actions aimed at moving forward with the vision of peace, dynamic balance, and "I-We-Thou" harmony, symbolized by the Third Paradise, conceived by artist Michelangelo Pistoletto as a global participatory project. The joint declaration will serve as a starting point for each participant to continue their commitment in their respective fields even after the forum concludes. It will also be a tool of Demopraxy, allowing everyone to collectively confirm and expand their ongoing efforts to ensure sustainability.

On the first day of activities, a participatory art performance will be held, in keeping with the principles and symbol of the Third Paradise, entitled "Third Paradise DMZ – Memories to Rebuild the Future". Conceived by the forum curators in collaboration with Francesco Saverio Teruzzi, coordinator of the network of over 300 Third Paradise Embassies, Third Paradise DMZ – Memories to Rebuild the Future will unfold as both action and trace, a work born from the gestures of its participants. Inside the former military bunker of Camp Greaves, a 36-meter-long hemp rope will form three interconnected circles: the emblem of the Third Paradise, a vision of balance between opposites—nature and artifice, past and future, self and other. The messages written by the participants—thesis, antithesis, and synthesis to imagine the future—will be attached to the rope, intertwining in a single collective gesture. The work will transform a place of confinement and silence into a laboratory of coexistence, where art becomes a practice of Preventive Peace, uniting memory and hope. The work will remain on view at Camp Greaves until November 19, 2025.

The event was organized according to the central idea of ​​Cittadellarte's work, Demopraxy—originally conceived by Cittadellarte's director, Paolo Naldini—which emphasizes the construction of democracy through the practices that each group of people engages in at work, but also in every other context where individuals encounter others: this is where the first rules are born. In this vision, art becomes a tool for sparking meaningful conversations about humanity, the planet, and our shared future.

Talking about Demopraxy and a sustainable future in the context of the DMZ means not only confronting borders, but also recognizing the cultural meanings attributed to them. Today, borders not only represent distance and exclusion, but can also become instruments of exchange, integration, and cultural circulation.

Paolo Naldini, Director of Cittadellarte, says: "In this context, Third Paradise DMZ: The Art of Demopraxy in Korea presents a symbolic and concrete proposal, inviting us to overcome differences, not by erasing them, but by weaving them into a shared fabric of diversity, integration, and coexistence. The DMZ, once a no-man's land, becomes a laboratory of possibilities: through the forum and participatory art installation, more than forty experts from different fields will meet to exchange knowledge, develop dialogue, and inspire new ways of thinking. Following Cittadellarte's methodology and its Manifesto of the Art of Demopraxy, the initiative will cultivate spaces for co-creation and listening based on respect, curiosity, and inclusion, fostering the emergence of collective intelligence and jointly imagining a sustainable future beyond exclusive and fragmented paradigms".

Michela Linda Magrì, Director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Seoul, said, "We need clear messages that can name things, people, and actions. Building peace is the result of new steps and visible changes. Michelangelo Pistoletto has been telling us this for years".

Cho Won Yong, CEO of the Gyeonggi Tourism Organization, said, "We hope that by organizing the Forum and the "Third Paradise DMZ" installation in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute in Seoul at Camp Greaves in the DMZ, where division, conflict, and peace coexist, we can offer an opportunity to convey the values ​​of peace and the sustainable future of the DMZ".

Valentina Buzzi and Soik Jung, co-curators of the event, said, "Art can be a fundamental tool for engaging with history, understanding the present, and helping build the future. Working on the Third Paradise DMZ project means engaging with a complex territory, transforming its energy into a reflection on the symbols of contemporaneity: the borders—visible or invisible—that simultaneously separate and connect different spheres of our time. Supporting Michelangelo Pistoletto's idea of ​​an art deeply intertwined with democracy means, on a curatorial level, not only exploring its theories and semantic fields, but also concretely investing in its transformative power. The evocative power of art teaches us that we can imagine a better future: with this project, we want to propose concrete actions to initiate this transformation, an attitude that is more necessary today than ever".

Organizers

Italian Cultural Institute in Seoul

The Italian Cultural Institute (IIC) in Seoul is an office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. Its mission is to promote and disseminate the Italian language and culture in Korea, as well as to strengthen cultural ties between the two countries. Under the auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the Italian Cultural Institute in Seoul is committed to promoting cultural exchange between Italy and South Korea through the organization of events in a variety of fields: visual arts, music, cinema, theater, dance, fashion, design, photography, architecture, and gastronomy, as well as scientific culture and the humanities. Its activities include organizing and supporting exhibitions and festivals, developing academic exchanges, encouraging the publication of Italian books, promoting the study of the Italian language, and collaborating with local institutions to organize events and festivals in various cultural fields. The Institute also has a library, available to members and students enrolled in courses, which allows them to consult and borrow books, audiovisual materials, and magazines. It offers Italian language and culture courses, taught by qualified instructors, with the aim of promoting knowledge of the language as a tool for dialogue and access to Italian culture. For concerts, some art exhibitions, and major events, the Institute collaborates with numerous local art institutions and museums, local public foundations, musical institutions, European Union cultural institutions, the Italian Departments of universities within its jurisdiction, as well as institutions under the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Gyeonggi Tourism Organization – Camp Greaves

Camp Greaves is located 2 km from the Southern Limit Line (SLL) of the DMZ, within the Civil Control Zone (CCZ). It is one of the oldest US military bases in South Korea, built in 1953 and used as a base for the 506th Regiment of the US Second Infantry Division for approximately 50 years, until the division's withdrawal in August 2004. Subsequently, Gyeonggi-do Province transformed Camp Greaves into a historical and cultural experiential facility in 2013, after the area was returned to the Korean government in 2007. The camp's buildings and structures have been preserved as they were during the US occupation, becoming the only place within the CCZ dedicated to historical, cultural, and artistic activities. As such, the site holds significant historical and cultural significance. With 10 exhibition halls renovated in 2016 as part of a cultural regeneration project, Camp Greaves is being transformed into a center for peace tourism in the DMZ, through the DMZ Peace Platform.

Curators

Valentina Buzzi (b. 1995) is a French-Italian curator, researcher, and consultant. Her curatorial practice explores the relationship between art and society, with a particular focus on the connections between art and cultural policies, science, and cultural heritage. After over five years in Seoul, she has developed numerous exchange projects between Europe and Korea, including: curating the first Italian Pavilion at the Gwangju Biennale (2023); the exhibition Lee Bae: La Maison de la Lune Brûlée at the 60th Venice Biennale (2024); the first edition of Loop Lab Busan, a spin-off of the Loop Film Festival in Barcelona (2025); and co-curating the contemporary art program in Paris for the 140th anniversary of diplomatic relations between France and Korea (2025–2026). She is a Curatorial Researcher at the Park Seo-Bo Foundation in Seoul and is completing a doctorate in Socio-Cultural Studies at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. In 2023, she was named Best Emerging Curator by Artribune, and in 2025, she was included in the Forbes Under 30 list for Culture. She writes regularly for Art Asia Pacific and Plus Magazine, and is the independent editor for Skira's Korean projects.

Soik Jung Curator, researcher, architect, social worker.

PhD in Urban Planning, PhD in Social Work. Soik Jung implements and connects academic and cultural activities such as research, exhibitions, educational programs, and publications in the fields of public art, architecture, urban planning, social sciences, and community practices. She recently curated Ministries of Loneliness, the Italian Pavilion exhibition at the 2024 Gwangju Biennale; as Co-Artistic Director, 2086: Together How?, the Korean Pavilion exhibition at the 2023 Venice Biennale; Smaller Slower Closer (2020-2021), a public art project promoted by the Arts Council Korea; and Architect.