REAL DMZ PROJECT 2015: Lived Time of Dongsong

August 13 – 23, 2015, Dongsong, Cheorwon-gun, Gangwon-do, http://realdmz.org, curators: Keum Hyun Han, Nam-See Kim, Sunjung Kim, Hyejin Lim

The Real DMZ Project tour in Dongsong, a small village a few kilometers away from the DMZ, was most of all an experience of travel and exploration. Spending three hours in a minibus, first slowly crawling through Seoul’s traffic jams, and then shaking and jumping on bumpy roads – both the minibus and the roads seemed to be rather senior in their age. And then we arrived – Hallelujah!

I realized I was actually in the middle of nowhere. A small sleepy town, basically a strip of buildings along the straight road cutting through the city. Equipped with a map, I and my group spent 4 hours wandering through the street, locating artworks spread at different locations, like a treasure hunt. Usually artworks were placed one each at a separate location. Some locations were in use – an apparel shop, a clinic, a church, a coffee shop, a toilet, etc. and other locations were in derelict collapsing houses. All of the locations were small. The map was quite precise and artworks easy to find.

At first I was disappointed with the at best average quality of installation and artworks, but during the sightseeing I realized that the artworks were more functioning as excuse to explore this small sleepy city I would have otherwise never visited. Even on the day I visited, when tensions between North and South Korea peaked and combat-ready alerts have been issued on both sides of the border, life in this town seemed to go on as usual. This was the core learning of this trip: That even right beside the DMZ, the countryside does not look much different from anywhere else, and the people don’t behave much differently either. The artworks served as clues, training the visitors to re-calibrate their sight and start looking around. Nothing more, but nothing less either, and actually, something of value, I believe.

Regarding the ‘art experience’ itself, it is difficult to talk about it separately from the experience of the trip. Most installations were very basic, as you can see from the photos. The bulk consisted of photographs and videos, a few paintings and on-site sculptures thrown into the mix. The list of artists was quite long, which gave the impression that the selection was not very rigorous, which in turn meant that the quality of the works covered a whole range from professional to amateurish. My possibility of understanding the artworks was also limited (as usual) by the lack of English descriptions, so I often just glanced over works, giving up a deeper engagement in advance. On one hand I thought that less (more complex) artworks would be more, but that would also mean less locations, so I wouldn’t have visited all the weird places like a hospital, army shop or Cheorwon Middle/High School Alumni Association in a dimly lit cellar. In the end I came to respect the curators’ decision to put on a show that organically grows into the city, providing a insight into daily life and letting life compete on par with small artistic interventions.

A weird experience, but it was the weirdness that made it valuable.

Some photo-impressions:

 

 

Full list of artworks:

	Dongsong Bus Terminal	Soyoung Chung+Dongsei Kim, Terminal: Far and Near
		Kim Jun-Ah, The Broken Railroads!
		Heo Su Bin, Invisible Danger
		Lee Jae Ho, Camouflage
	Narae Telecom	Sindae Kang, #DMZ
	Cheorwon Methodist Church	Youngjoo Cho, DMG_Demilitarized Goddesses
	PX21 Dongsong Branch	Bae Minkyung, The Sound of Waves
	(Cellphone Locker)	ps jinjoo kim, Proposed Time in Dongsong
	Cheorwon Middle/High School	Jin Chul kyu, Flying Kite in Cheorwon – D.M.Z
	Alumni Association	Dae Jin Choi, A/One Day (The Most Faraway Place I Went to, the Place to which I Want to Go, Suddenly…What’s Left
		Choi Gene-uk, North Korean Labor Party Office A, North Korean Labor Party Office B
		Kim Junyoung, Dongsong City series
		LeeHaiMinSun, A Square Stone and Green Grass, DMZ-land
		Alain Declercq, HEADQUARTER
	Blue Star Veteran’s Association	Kang Seoung Gyu+Jeong Seung Ik, Freezing Point
		Kim Dohee, Endless Barbed Wire Fence
	86 Ipyeong Street	Kang Hyunah, Dongsong DMZ Eco-Tourism
	SK Telecom	Hayoun Kwon, 489 years
	Dongsong Branch	HyeKyung Ham, A Man from afar
	Cheorwon Catholic Church	Kim So Young, Shim Bo Seon, Light House
		Soyoung Chung+Dongsei Kim, Terminal: Far and Near
		Kang Hee Jung, They Loved Each Other
	265 Geumhak Street	Remi Klemensiewicz, Speaker Flag
	Gwanjeon Police Station	Kwon Yongju, We’ll see you at the top
	DMZ Real Estate	Jehyun Shin, Alarming Number of
	Kimsunkyong Gallery	Ko Young-taeg, A Walk
		Jaewoo Oh, The Other Side of the Moon
		Yang Youn-Hwa, 38 Years
	272 Geumhak Street	Jin Heewoong, EVERYTHING IS REALLY GOING TO BE ALRIGHT
	Saerona Park	Jin Heewoong, Blank
	Meritz Fire	HongLee Hyun-Sook, DMZ Pan Pipe of Mago Halmi
		Kim Kyoung-Ho, 17-jul-2015
	The Kind Coffee	Lee-Park Kim, Moving Gardening – DMZ
		Yang yun im, Eyescrime
		Kim Jun-Ah, The Broken Railroads!
	Sungshim Pharmacy	Chung Wonyeon, Tablet for Soldier’s Heart
	Dongsong Traditional Marker     (Service Center/Merchants’     Association)	Seoul National University Graduate School of Environmental Studies DMZ Studio, Everyday Space Workshop / Pyongsang Maru Design Building + Cheorwon Future Vision Workshop
		Rayeon Kim, Language < Line/Land⋰, ‹At the Moment series
		Jeong Ki Hoon, The Sunshine Moment
		Kim Jun-Ah, The Broken Railroads!
	Appeal Shop	Kim Hyunjoo, Summer in Yugokri
	Geum-Poong Inn	Joongho Yum, Melting Memories
		Kim Taedong, rifling series
		Hong Yoo-Kyung, A Field
		Jehyun Shin, Alarming Number of
	Pilseung Military Supplies	JI-Sun Shin, Contemplating the Landscapes
	Huimang Photo Studio	Chung Wonyeon, Take a Look at the Flowers
	Dongwon Korean Medicinic     Clinic	Kim Jypeong, Eight Sceneries, ‹Half of the Bodyscape
	YESSE	Kim Jun-Ah, The Broken Railroads!
	Sunkyong Kim Art Academy	Sunkyong Kim, A Little Garden
	201-24 Geumhak Street	Kim Joon, Mixed Signals
	Timeless	Bae Byoungkyu, The Light of Dusk, The Soil sings
		Park Kyung Jin, recruit
		Park Yumi, Chance Maker
		Kim Jun-Ah, The Broken Railroads!