“I admit that twice two makes four is an excellent thing, but if we are to give everything its due, twice two makes five is sometimes a very charming thing too.”

2×2=4.

Precise, efficient, unquestionable.

The world today calculates answers faster than ever before.

Artificial intelligence processes enormous amounts of data to produce the most probable answer, and somewhere along the way, 

we began to accept correctness, efficiency, and optimization as unquestioned ideals.

But to be human has always meant living beyond that.

We make irrational choices.

We are moved by emotions we cannot fully explain.

Even when an answer is already given, we continue to ask questions.

Why is perfect logic alone never enough?

Why, even when faced with the certainty of 2×2=4, do we still long for 2×2=5?

The theme of the Seoul International Book Fair 2026 is '인간선언 Homo duduri.'

Homo duduri is a new name for the human who questions.

In an age where artificial intelligence delivers answers through probability, Homo duduri is the one who pauses to reconsider those answers and ask again.

A being who refuses to accept the world as it is, and instead knocks on the door of possibilities that do not yet exist.

This exhibition begins with that question.

Through lines drawn from classic works of world literature, we hope to return to the enduring question of what it means to be human.

And through those lines, we hope to hear the questions each of you carries today.

Some questions may come closer to emotion than logic.

Some may seek possibility over certainty.

But humanity has always imagined new worlds through the possibility of being wrong.

The questions you leave behind will connect with one another throughout the exhibition.

One person’s question becomes another’s, and those questions go on to knock at someone else’s door.

We are not collecting answers.

Instead, we want to gather the questions of those living through this moment in time.

Not the most accurate answers, but the questions that carry us furthest.

Now, what is your question?

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* Source: Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Notes from Underground. Translated by Yeon-kyung Kim, Minumsa, 2010.