Spectres of the State Avant-garde explores the complex relationship between modern architecture and the state. Insofar as the late 1960s were the origin of both Seoul’s urban structure and various state institutions and systems, it was a period when the ideology of the state and the vision of architects became intertwined. For South Korean architects dreaming of utopian ideals, the oppressive developmental state paradoxically provided the only viable platform for showcasing their imaginative prowess. Through the juxtaposition of the contradictory terms “state” and “avant-garde”, this exhibition focuses on KECC, or the Korea Engineering Consultants Corporation, to highlight the schism between political power and imagination and the contradiction between political system and utopian ideals.