Dismemberment
Survey exhibition
November 14, 2026–February 28, 2027
The GfZK presents the first survey exhibition in Germany devoted to Korean-Dutch artist Sara Sejin Chang (Sara van der Heide). In a poetic body of works, she explores aspects of Eurocentric thinking and lays bare the colonial structures that continue to shape the world today. Through film, installation, and painting, she develops tongue-in-cheek, enchanting forms of healing that extend beyond the individual to address society as a whole. She draws on knowledge such as shamanism, as seen in her film installation Dismemberment, which also lends its title to the exhibition. The term describes a symbolic, spiritual process in which an existing identity is taken apart and reassembled. This process opens up not only new perspectives, but also the possibility of profound transformation.
The exhibition brings together works from the past 15 years, in which Chang develops a range of artistic strategies to critically examine the present. She observes the normalisation of fascist politics in Europe and portrays Brussels as its faltering centre. She traces the colonial history of transracial child adoption, through which children from the Global South—including as many as 200,000 from South Korea alone—were trafficked to Western Europe and the United States. She revives a Goethe-Institut library in Pyongyang, North Korea. And she explores how the colour theories of Goethe and the Bauhaus have shaped views of the world.
Sara Sejin Chang’s (Sara van der Heide’s) large-scale film and installation works are the result of research and creative processes spanning several years. She has participated in numerous international group exhibitions and biennials, such as 18th Biennial de Lyon, the Busan Biennial (2022), the 11th Berlin Biennale, and the 36th São Paulo Biennial. Her works are included in collections such as those of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Van Abbemuseum, the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, and the MMCA in Seoul. In 2023, she was awarded the Theodora Niemeijer Prize for outstanding female artists in the Netherlands.
From March 28 to October 25, 2026, Chang’s first comprehensive solo exhibition in the Netherlands was on view at Landhuis Oud Amelisweerd in Utrecht, as part of an exhibition series organised by the Centraal Museum.
Curator: Sabine Weier
Assistant Curator: Hanar Hupka
Scenography: Julia Gerke
Graphic design: Hannah Witte and Maja Redlin
The exhibition is supported by the Mondriaan Fund, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony. This project is co-funded based on the budget approved by the Saxon State Parliament.
