Parasites and Hosts

Min Guhong Manufacturing’s system of “hosts” begins by refusing to mistake the metaphor of parasitism for a management strategy. Rather than expanding itself, the company quietly takes up residence in existing structures—companies, institutions, exhibitions, publishing projects, and educational programs—as its hosts. Yet it does not lean on them entirely. The host provides space, a budget, and an institutional framework; Min Guhong Manufacturing slips a new order into that framework through the web and writing. Helping the host fulfill its own purpose while nudging that purpose slightly off course. Surviving as long as possible in an ambiguous position, neither fully assimilating nor fully resisting. What matters in this system is density rather than scale. Instead of growing larger, the company leaves behind firmer sentences. When a host disappears, it can simply find another, but the writing and hyperlinks left along the way form an independent ecosystem of their own.

Current Hosts

AG Lab
3F, 41 Donggyo-ro 12-gil, Mapo-gu, Seoul
http://lab.ag.co.kr
lab@ag.co.kr

PIE
6F, Felix Building, 116 Seongmisan-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul
http://p-i-e.kr

Temporary Hosts

The Book Society / Mediabus
Basement, 25 Jahamun-ro 19-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul
https://thebooksociety.org

Seoul Museum of Art
61 Deoksugung-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul
https://sema.seoul.go.kr

Past Hosts

Workroom
2F, 4 Jahamun-ro 16-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul
https://workroom.kr

Ahn Graphics
125-15 Hoedong-gil, Paju-si, Gyeonggi-do
https://agbook.co.kr