2015.8.13-23, Cheorwon, Südkorea
They Loved Each Other 2015
Drawing, collage on book, 15,5 x22,5, x2,5cm
Installation view at Cheorwon cathedral
At the beginning of April,
I visited Cheorwon for the first time to participate in a research trip of
Artsonje Center. While the Second Underground Tunnel and the Peace Observatory
of the Security Sightseeing program reminded me of the tragic situation caused
by the Korean War and the country's division, such places as Woljieong-ri
Station and the Labor Party Headquarters aroused nostalgia. Wide Plains of
Cheorwon and streets of Dongsong town spread out of the window of the running
bus seemed inappropriately peaceful for the word "security." As each
Place left me a complex impression, I could not explain about it with
standardized images and emotions that are related to such words as "war“or "security." Therefore, I made a book that includes sketches of
the impressions that I got from various places in Cheorwon instead of producing
a work that deals with conceptual subjects surrounding the DMZ. A collection of poems written by Mikhail Lermontov, which was used as a
material of my work, is one of the Russian literature series published by Yeolrinchaekdeul during the time of ideological conflicts in the '80s and the
'90s of South Korea.
To an artist,
to make a sketch means to have an attitude as an observer who looks at a place
from a distance and takes an interest in external appearances instead of historic
or internal situations of the place. Landscapes
as seen in this way are connected to his own memory. The book includes sketches
of the materials that I collected in Dongsong town such as photos of camouflage that are painted
over guard posts and weekly bulletins of church and
cathedral. There are also drawings
based on images and texts chosen from articles about realism art in the '80s in
Korea, a brochure of an exhibition
<The Korean Peninsula> in Arko Art Center, and a book titled <Coréenese> by Chris Marker.
In addition, the drawings of various maps and tickets show that I have
repeated leaving and staying in Seoul, Jeju, Germany, and Choerwon for a long
time and gotten used to looking at places as an observer.
They Loved Each Other, digital print on paper, 21 x 29,7cm, 2015