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This exhibition aims to show some snapshots of life on both sides of the Korean Peninsula, separated for more than 70 years despite their common history. Between times of tension and peace, this territory has undergone permanent upheaval as both sides sought to develop independently. But over the last year, the evolution of relations between the two Koreas and then with the United States, revived, in a certain measure, the debate on the delicate issue of reunification among Korean citizens. A series of portraits showing people in similar moments of life lets imagine the impossible: a day when they would be able to live together again.

Recentky, both Koreas experienced extraordinary moments. South Korean President Moon Jae-in took advantage of last year’s Winter Olympic Games to negotiate a meeting between Pyongyang and Washington, just after the rise of tensions in 2017, when North Korea shot down several missiles and proceeded to a nuclear test of unprecedented power. President Donald Trump and leader Kim Jong-un exchanged insults and threats of war.

The first highly publicized summit was held in Singapore, but only resulted into a vague text on a promise of denuclearization. A second meeting in Vietnam in February with a view to implement the commitments was concluded without any agreement.

After that, contacts between the two countries were reduced to a minimum, with North Korea regularly criticizing the US position. But the two leaders later exchanged a few letters, until the US president uses Twitter to propose a meeting in the demilitarized zone.

In June 2019, after attending the G20 summit in Japan, President Trump walked the North Korean soil, offering an extraordinary new episode after the first meeting between Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un in 2018, where South Korean President invited the young leader to cross the military demarcation line, before the latter invited him in his turn to take a few steps on the north side of the border. And while this diplomatic waltz unfolded, North Koreans and South Koreans continued to lead their lives, generally little troubled by these historic highs.