Five years ago, I lived in Gwangju for a month at the Asia Culture Center with researchers and artists from India, Bangladesh, Spain, Malaysia, China and beyond. I had just finished my graduate studies in the U.K., and while they finalized Brexit, I spent that autumn in South Korea. The ginkgo trees were bright yellow and so were the fields of rice.

Researchers were housed in what seemed like a converted office building. It was an odd time. Imagine living and sleeping in a former office or classroom with one narrow bed shoved into the corner of a giant room. The showers were military style, too, with exposed stalls and no doors. President Moon Jae-in’s son, an artist, was rumored to also be a fellow, living on one of the upper floors. The upper floors were rumored but not confirmed to be more luxurious.

Established in 2015, the ACC itself flaunted an architectural sprawl, but it was strangely divorced from the surrounding universities and neighborhoods. A sign explained the area’s history. Before they........

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