The Italian Cultural Institute in Seoul, directed by Davide Scalmani, the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture, chaired by Hyeongjong Song, and Fondazione Pistoletto Cittadellarte, directed by Paolo Naldini, present the public art project Third Paradise Seoul 2026, which will take place on October 15 at the Seoul Arts Education Center Yongsan. Third Paradise Seoul 2026 is part of the path of Demopratic Work, developed in more than fifty cities around the world starting from the concepts of Demopraxy and Preventive Peace developed respectively by the director of the Foundation, Naldini, and by Michelangelo Pistoletto. This second edition of the project in Korea takes place in Seoul and follows Third Paradise DMZ: the Art of Demopraxy in Korea, held in September 2025 at Camp Greaves, in the area adjacent to the DMZ.

The new edition, between past and future
If Third Paradise DMZ, hosted in a place of coexistence, brought together forty civil society activists to discuss current issues in Korean society - loneliness, borders, care, resilience, and action -, Third Paradise Seoul 2026 also involves artists, with the intention of transforming social debate into artistic practice. To this end, activists and artists will collaborate in pairs to realize shared projects. The fourteen groups will propose artistic projects linked to the social and environmental challenges we face. Through this joint work, they will also explore what kind of art can put Preventive Peace into practice and in what way art can contribute to social change.

The exhibition
The fourteen artistic projects developed within the framework of Third Paradise Seoul 2026 will be presented to the public in January 2027 at Art Center Nabi. The participants (activist and artist) are as follows: GongGam Human Rights Law Foundation + Eun Jung Kim; Research Institute for Community-based Childhood Culture + Hasom Oh; Muui + Won-tae Seo; The Sun pro bono center + Jennifer Park, EHAP; Korea Honeybee Ecological Environment Protection Association + Moon Chaemin, Shin AhYeong; songha garden lab + Piece of Peace(Chun Geungsung); organicpunk + Chun Yuseon; WishBuilder + Hyunjin Kong; nestofpeace + Gyeongjin An; Lesbian Counseling Center in South Korea + Yang Seungwook; HE:ART + Young Choi; DMZ Biodiversity Research Institute + Lee Ryeojin; Lee Hadong, Creative Technologist & Cultural Programmer + TaeHee Kim; Franco Ylenia, Activist(humanitarian) + Migration Stories Project(Kim Yangwoo). The exhibition will also include the archives of the Demopratic Work and Third Paradise DMZ, offering concrete examples of the link between social debate and artistic practice. Public participation activities connected to the projects will also be proposed to foster active interaction with citizens. At the end of the exhibition, the projects will return to the contexts in which the activists operate, contributing to expanding opportunities for engagement between civil society and citizens and conveying their messages.