Relatively Normal

In the early days of 2020, South Korea quickly emerged as a hotspot for the virus. By late February, a cluster of Covid-19 cases connected to a religious sect in the southeastern city of Daegu made headlines, and before long, Covid-19 had spread to most of the country's major cities, compelling the government to implement a rapid and comprehensive testing program that would later become a model for other countries to follow. Innovations such as drive-through testing centers and mobile contact tracing aided South Korea in effectively managing the pandemic, resulting in fewer than 500 Covid-19-related deaths during the first ten months of the outbreak, all while avoiding a total lockdown. Indeed, daily life in South Korea has mostly remained unaffected by the pandemic owing to the general public's overwhelming compliance with public health officials' recommendations. In the culture sector, art spaces adopted visitor-reservation systems and limited daily attendance while eliminating openings and transitioning many public programs online. Otherwise, the contemporary art community in South Korea has maintained a strong semblance of normalcy throughout the year, with a few notable exceptions.