This thesis examines how sexual minorities are represented and included in South Korean public art museums, and what these practices reveal about institutional recognition, cultural sustainability, and social justice. Theoretically anchored in Judith Butler's theory of performativity and recognizability, Nancy Fraser’s redistribution, recognition, and representation, Sara Ahmed’s critique of institutional diversity, and Pierre Bourdieu’s account of symbolic power, the research argues that museum inclusion cannot be evaluated simply by counting exhibitions or listing queer themes. Instead, the key question is how museums define which queer lives are recognizable, administratively manageable, and publicly defensible, and through which legal, organizational, and discursive procedures these boundaries are drawn.
The research is based on a qualitative case study methodology focused on metropolitan public art museums in South Korea. Fieldwork conducted from July to August 2025 integrated documentary analysis with fifteen semi-structured interviews involving curators, archivists, queer artists, and art critics. The analysis contextualizes interview materials within the broader context of Korea’s incomplete anti-discrimination legislation, public museum governance structures, evaluation systems, and civil petition processes, alongside the historical trajectory of queer politics and public discourse on sexual minorities.
The findings indicate that museums function under a complex legal-administrative risk environment, where the appointment of directors, performance metrics, and accountability driven by complaints promote what practitioners refer to as “cautious” or “conditional” forms of inclusion. Symbolic visibility for sexual minorities is often displayed through family-oriented narratives, content warnings, and spatial marginalization. The thesis terms this pyobaek (bleached) visibility, a process in which queer content is admitted but its political, historical, and bodily specificity is often washed out, leaving only an aestheticized presence the institution can promote as diversity. Pyobaek is neither outright exclusion nor full recognition but an in-between condition, the museum’s characteristic response to what the thesis calls the fragmented matrix, in which the legal, political, and cultural norms governing queer life no longer align. Although national and municipal museums increasingly embrace diversity language and acknowledge global standards, these commitments often function as non-performative speech acts that reinforce institutional self-image without actually reallocating resources, authority, or decision-making power to queer communities.
The thesis emphasizes the significance of counterpublic spaces, including community-driven queer archives and independent art initiatives, which gather alternative collections, terminologies, and interpretive frameworks from the periphery. These places not only safeguard fragile sexual minority cultural production but also reveal the systemic limitations of museum-centric approaches to minority justice. The thesis concludes that sustainable queer cultural futures in South Korea require a reevaluation of public museum governance, assessment, and civil petition frameworks, enabling sexual minorities to engage as equal stakeholders in determining legitimate heritage and the experiences that constitute the public memory that museums claim to preserve and represent.
