The Korean artist Gimhongsok garnered a huge amount of attention from the press for his 2008–2009 solo exhibition at the Kukje Gallery in Seoul, and his exposure reached well beyond the arts section. This was largely due to his notorious opening performance, Post-1945, 2008, for which he hired a prostitute to act like an “ordinary” visitor to the gallery, offering a cash prize to anyone who could identify her. His title suggested that the performance was meant as a satirical commentary on the capitalist ethos of postwar Korea, in which all human relations are mediated by monetary exchange.

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