NSAA Pavilion

At the Wooyang Museum in Gyeongju, DeRoche Projects designed a contemplative environment for Amoako Boafo’s first solo exhibition in Asia – one that stitches together space, material, and culture into a unified sensory experience.

The spatial intervention is the first moment visitors encounter upon reaching the second floor, marking the beginning of the exhibition journey and setting the tone for what follows. Centered on three new large-scale paintings, the installation extends Boafo’s ongoing engagement with portraiture, adornment, and material memory, introducing embroidery as both medium and method.

DeRoche, who has previously collaborated with Boafo on architectural and exhibition projects from Accra to London, reimagines a section of the cultural institution as a site of embodied encounter and shared cultural expression. Embroidery, drawn from both Ghanaian and Korean traditions, becomes a conceptual and material bridge.

In Korea, traditional jasu embroidery graced royal garments and household textiles, its intricate motifs encoding meaning and status. In Ghana, embroidery embellishes smocks, kaftans, and agbadas – garments imbued with cultural pride, spiritual belief, and artisanal skill. While each tradition is distinct, both treat the stitched line as a mode of transmission, where memory passes from hand to cloth, generation to generation.

A minimalist approach and raw material sensibility pervade the design. Most notably, original turn-of-the-century wall paintings were uncovered and preserved in the entrance area, visible through the refurbished 1970s storefront. This thoughtful blending of historical and contemporary elements creates a palimpsest, where past and present coexist within the gallery’s evolving narrative.