Seoul-based artist Sojung Jun transfigures space and time to awaken a dreamlike vision of Korea as a re-united ecotopia. Curated this month by Josef O’Connor in collaboration with the Seoul Museum of Art, Jun’s two films demonstrate the potential for public art to overcome ideological and political conflicts with artistic imagination.
Appearing online and presented daily across a global network of screens in London, Tokyo and Seoul, this exhibition explores the tensions inherent in the act of translating history, culture and time with the interwoven presentation of two major works: Green Screen (2021) casting light on the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas ‘with pervading senses of frustration and anticipation’ either side of Early Arrival of Future (2015), a landmark ten-minute musical performance between South and North Korean pianists, which will be presented only once at the midpoint of the month, 16 August, in its full entirety. Jun, the 18th laureate of the Hermès Foundation Missulsang, a biannual prize for Korea's most promising artists, explains:
“These two works question the senses that the experience of division and boundaries bring to life. At the same time, they cross the axis of time and continue to recalibrate the present in relation to the past. This CIRCA project hopes to reflect on the scenes of conflict that lies beyond the division of the two Koreas and, therefore, encourage recollection of the sense of coexistence and solidarity.”
Filmed along the border of the Korean DMZ over the last month, Green Screen considers the potential of a human - vacated or intermediate landscape. Jun assembled a vivid, multi-perspectival picture of the DMZ, a 155-mile-long, 2.5-mile-wide strip of land that has been virtually untouched by humans for more than six decades, after gaining access in June 2021 to the adjacent Civilian Control Area guarded by the South Korean army.
A symbol of suffering and division, the DMZ became an unintentional wildlife sanctuary when the two Koreas withdrew following the armistice at the conclusion of the Korean War of 1950-53. In recent years, South Korean President Moon Jae-in has begun working with UNESCO to list the DMZ as a World Heritage Site. Drawing inspiration from ‘Mongyudowondo’ (below) a 15th Century painting based on a Korean Prince’s dream of a journey into a land of peach blossom trees, Green Screen focuses on ‘the site’s potential as a gap or a twilight zone while giving due attention to the power of nature.’
President Moon Jae-in has begun working with UNESCO to list the DMZ as a World Heritage Site. Drawing inspiration from ‘Mongyudowondo’ (below) a 15th Century painting based on a Korean Prince’s dream of a journey into a land of peach blossom trees, Green Screen focuses on ‘the site’s potential as a gap or a twilight zone while giving due attention to the power of nature.’
- London, Piccadilly Lights at 20:21 BST
- Seoul, Coex K-POP Square at 20:21 KST
- Tokyo, Yunika Vision, Shinjuku at 09:00 JST
- Online via CIRCA.ART at 20:21 BST
[London]