The 2023 exhibition Laudato Si brought religious art, diplomatic documents and ecological reflection to Myeongdong Cathedral in Seoul.
The exhibition marked the 60th anniversary of formal diplomatic relations between South Korea and the Holy See.
Art interpreting an ecological encyclical
Members of a local artists’ association created works responding to Pope Francis’s 2015 encyclical Laudato Si.
The text calls for an integrated response to environmental destruction, inequality and the treatment of the natural world.
Archbishop Peter Chung Soon-taick described the works as artistic interpretations of that ecological thinking and invited visitors to consider how religious belief might inform environmental responsibility.
Historical objects and memories of martyrdom
The exhibition also included works from the Apostolic Nunciature in Korea, a bronze chapel cross and two original papal bulls signed by Pope Paul VI in 1963 and 1966.
The display was dedicated to Korean and foreign Catholic martyrs.
Artist-association president Sophie Park specifically remembered Bishop Patrick Byrne, the first papal delegate to Korea, who died during a forced march in North Korea in 1950.
These historical references connected current diplomatic relations with the longer history of Catholicism in Korea.
Laudato Si functioned simultaneously as art exhibition, religious commemoration and cultural diplomacy.
Its most contemporary element was the ecological theme. By asking artists to interpret an encyclical visually, the exhibition moved environmental responsibility from doctrine into images capable of being encountered through emotion, material and individual imagination.