SEOUL WINDOWS 서울 창문
HOME→Seoul Windows is a photographic project by Michele Foti
that portrays the capital of South Korea through
the windows of its buildings. From high-rise apartments
to commercial buildings, office towers,and structures
on the verge of demolition, each distinct windowhas become
both a lens and a frame through which the city is seen.
The Book is published by Small Small Editions in 2025.
The streets of Seoul are for people:
they belong equally to the crowd, to traffic and noise.
They are bright and colorful, with every vertical surface covered
in advertising signs and luminous screens.
Individuals navigate this vibrant yet overwhelming environment,
where the pressurecan feel immense.
Yet within the crowd’s flow, one’s presence may fade,
and in that invisibility, a certain freedom emerges.
At the heart of every human settlement lies the idea of ‘togetherness’.
Villages and cities were established not only for safety
and commerce but, above all, to bring people closer,
to gather, to communicate, and to connect.
While density defines urban life, the close clustering of people,
buildings, and infrastructure also brings challenges.
In today’s cities, where industrial focus has shifted,
towering skyscrapers have become new symbols
of the urban landscape. Amid the crowds beneath them,
architecture serves as a vital tool for economic activity
and is regarded as an essential resource, much like
water and air. To escape the throngs and find some relief
from the chaos at ground level, Michele Foti steps into a building
and takes the elevator up. He lands on the fifteenth,
eighteenth, and twenty-first floors to look out
the windows. What unfolds before him is a cityscape
unlike anything he expected. It is a quiet, suspended moment
where life appears to stand still. Each window reveals
only a fragment of the vast metropolis. Nearby buildings rise taller, drawing the eye and creating a steady backdrop that invites
the gaze to rest. However, beyond this, a grand and towering
cluster of structures continuously emerges, revealing
an ever-expanding skyline.
This incredible concentration of buildings, bizarre in their variations,
appears to have emerged from a furious competition
with their neighbors.The city has grown layer upon layer,
blending varied purposes into a vibrant and ever-evolving creation shaped by technology and the boundless human imagination.
Intricately woven and touched by human hands, this city forms
a unique urban landscape. Born from challenges and change,
this lively city is less the product of meticulous planning than
an intriguing outcome of chance and creativity.
Within this constructed environment, people live closely together,
where contrasting elements harmonize uniquely, coexisting side
by side. Michele Foti retreats into a suspended space,
his curious gaze resting on the architectural elements that support
the rhythms of life. These buildings reveal aspects of the metropolis’s delicate nature and invite reflection on our ways of inhabiting the city.
Photography Michele Foti
Editing / Design zoll.studio
Exhibition design by Small Small Space / Zoll Studio
Thanks to Mariana Siracusa and Spazio Project