From August 12th to November 19th, GoEun Contemporary Photo Museum presents ‘New Force of Photography’, which is hosted by KT&G Sangsangmadang and supported by GoEun Museum of Photography.
‘New Force of Photography’ is an annual exhibition for discovering and supporting new artists who have sustainable growth potential with perfection and experimenting spirit in their art work, based on historicity and legitimacy of photography. Through the exhibition, GoEun museum of Photography and KT&G Sangsangmadang are trying to solidify the foundation of Korean photography and suggest new possibilities. In its 3rd exhibition, the wining finalist of the 6th KT&G Sangsangmadang’s support program for Korean photographer, Jihyun Jung and the other finalist, Youngchuel Ji will present their art works.
‘Demolition Site’ of Jihyun Jung shows us the artist’s traces left in a demolition site in redevelop area. We think we have been used to those sites but at the same time in some way we haven’t. People both desire and feel uncomfortable about newly built cities, which are built only for political and economic benefits trampling on their past. The photographer, who has grown in this kind of city, has been seen the city taking the sites where people’s personal memories are stacked, only for its new functions. This experience leads her to be concerned about the process of creation and destruction which is omitted in the society where spaces are only classified as consumable object. She chose one of the buildings that were about to be demolished, painted its parts with red paint, and took pictures of it. Then after the building had been demolished, she went to the demolition site and looked for the traces of red paint and recorded them again. This record is not just a proof the terrible demolition site, but a record of figurative details of the building seen by an individual. The artist’s objective view toward those traces stresses the fact that she is paying attention to the distinct characteristic of a space as a medium of memory, rather than paying attention to emotional approach on losing it.
While ‘Demolition Site’ is talking about personal space and personal memory on the space demolished for convenience, what Youngchuel Ji’s ‘North latitude 38°’is talking about is spaces made by coordinates which shows divided area in figures.
Even though we can’t see latitude and longitude because they are invisible, they bind countries together or separate them. The artist pays attention to continuity of space that makes historical, cultural, social, national, and humane characteristics of the space, transcending the separation made by latitude and longitude. ‘North latitude 38°’ is a series of photos shot in the process of following the line of north latitude 38°, one of the lines of latitude. For Korean, the line symbolizes their tragic history that has lasted for decades. Then how are the lives in other countries on the same line going? That’s the question the artist is asking. In the exhibition, spectators will move from Korea to China, Japan, and the United States following the line of north latitude 38°. In their journey, they can see sceneries that are different from their country’s sceneries, but at the same time in some way resembles them. Those counties may have tragic history like Korea or fragmentary historical stories influencing world history, or they might be just peaceful areas geographically connected with each other. Though people in each country have established their own society, and have different culture, sometimes they have something in common with people in other countries. Of course, the artist doesn’t push spectators to follow his interpretation. He just captured various scenes on north latitude 38°. What he wanted is for spectators to be heard about the fact that north latitude 38° isn’t just a limited boundary made by men, but an expanded space.
Thanks to the 6th KT&G Sangsangmadang, I could meet many rising photographers this year. Of course each of them has their own methodologies, but one thing they have in common is that they make their art works based on their personal view point, not huge ideology. Two finalists, Jihyun Jung and Youngchuel Ji, each took demolition area and north latitude 38° as their subject matter. However, they tell us about neither national or political ideology nor enormous phenomena. In case of Mr. Ji, I can see he tried hard to keep objective view toward north latitude 38° which has important historical meaning to Korean, by approaching it with its meaning as a sign. Both of the artists show us a characteristic of modern art in that they keep their personal point of view in their art works. However, it doesn’t mean that we are paying attention to them because of this characteristic. Although a lot of artists have changed their attitude toward their art works as times have changed and there have been a shift in generations, these two artists have maintained their own methodologies and a balance in their point of view. That’s the reason why they are attracting our attention.
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Jihyeon Jeong takes photos not to forget demolitions.
Demolition is one of the subjects which artists often choose as their subject matter. Imagine a demolishing construction where buildings are torn apart. It’s a great subject to arouse photographer’s interest. Screams of residents of demolished area and traces of violence of gangsters employed to throw those residents out are also great subjects. The problem is that there are too many artists who take pictures of demolition site. However it doesn’t mean that repetitive reproduction of the subject make demolition sites less meaningful. We can see messages with red letters refusing demolition on any demolition site’s walls. When you see them, you can feel desperate screams. Those screams exist because cities in Korea have grown with violence in guise of redevelopment. Every demolition has tragic aspect. Thus, the meaning of taking picture of demolition sites will never be meaningless. What’s important is the methodology in taking pictures.
Jihyun Jung played her own performance through her art works to see demolition sites through her own point of view, not others. Painting a demolished building with red paint was the performance. The traces of her performance would fade away and never be retained in other people’s memory, because the buildings would disappear without leaving any traces. Those traces remain only in one person’s memory, the photographer’s. At this point, ‘demolition’ becomes free from its cosmic meaning as a social issue, and transfers to personal level, the artist’s exploration. This process surely can be told as ‘exploration’ since the site was dangerous because of remains of demolished buildings. Also, there were guards who are as scary as iron bars and mass of concrete in the site. The photographer left her traces despite those security risks.
Photos acquired in this process are quite figurative rather than social. Those photos remind us of the artworks of a French photographer, Georges Rousse in some way. He painted uneven surface of buildings under demolition red, so that the surface can look like a circle or a square from a distance. Then he took a photo of it. In reality, the surface had irregular shape. However the photographer made it look like a geometrical figure. Though it looks like both of the artists’ works have resemblance, they are different from each other in that Rousse’s art works are playful while Jung’s are not. Rousse doesn’t pay attention to social tragedy caused by demolition. What he needed was only the irregular surface. However, Jihyun Jung’s photos are not playful at all. She deals with ‘demolition’ with seriousness. Photographers don’t see demolition as urban sociologists do. They have different point of view. Jihyun Jung needed to secure her own point of view toward demolition and her own sense of space. So she decided to paint buildings red. Through the traces of the paint which couldn’t last just for days, the demolition site was changed into photographer’s personal space.
For her, recording something using photograph means active intervention. She sometimes transforms the subjects of her photos. However, this transformation helps the subjects to be remembered, not to be forgotten. Her work makes the space remembered as a place which was painted with red paint once, even though the traces existed for few days. Painting is an active performance. But the place is helpless against violence of elimination that time has. As flowers which can maintain their lives only for few days are beautiful, Jihyun Jung’s red paint also looks beautiful.
Youngjun Lee, a photograph critic
Youngchuel Ji takes photos not to forget division of his country.
How can the scenery of the divided country be that peaceful? Well, indeed, we Korean have had lives on this land. Not just lives, exciting, pleasant lives. We have given birth to our children, graduated from schools, and found jobs on this land. But no one can blame us for forgetting the fact that our country is divided. We’ve never forgotten about it. The memory of division has been carved in our bones and stacked up in our unconsciousness. From an average high school student walking down the street watching his smart phone to a middle aged man enjoys casino in Gangwon Land, every one of us still remember we are living in a divided country.
We can find traces of the national division in our daily scenery. Those traces have become monuments. They are not like huge memorials built in rows. From abandoned guard posts on the east coast and a bust of North Korean soldier to wire fences that will be demolished someday, various monuments exist. So Youngchuel Ji reproduced new monuments by taking pictures. What are the monuments? The monuments let us know that someone passed away and the tragedy is ended. Then how can the monuments exist in the country where division is still ongoing? Technically, we can say that the division is already ceased, seeing those young people who enjoy their Friday night in night clubs or those rich people enjoying golf by lake side. Surely they are not dropping or wiping their tears because of the national division.
The division comes to the surface of reality when people from foreign countries see us. Even though we call our country just ‘Korea’, for them, our country is ‘South Korea’. The name ‘South Korea’ is like a narrow path that the trauma of the national division comes through. The division has separated not only our land but also our name. That is, we were separated from those people who call our country ‘South Korea’ because of it. It also has affected the perception and recognition of foreigners toward Korea. Consequently Korean’s trauma toward the national division has been getting deeper and deeper, though it seemingly looks calm.
That’s the reason why Youngchuel Ji’s photos are that calm. The scenery of Moffatt, Colorado of the states, where a memorial tablet marking the national division exists, is also so calm like saying it forgot everything. I can’t understand why the United States calls the Korean War ‘the forgotten war’. We haven’t forgotten the war. He doesn’t take pictures saying “never forget the war.” He takes pictures because we are about to forget it. Although he knows that photos can’t be adequate tools for remembering the war, he still takes pictures. However, his photos never ask anything of us. Even huge antitank obstacles or wire fences that can tear human flesh out are not that threatening in his photos. Time has wiped out the memory of the division, but it also has wiped out reasons for reunification. What people are worried about right now is huge cost that will be spent for reunification rather than benefits of it. Reunification is no more our hope. It’s a cause of worry where we should make profits and loss.
In this situation, the monuments of the national division are no more the things monumentalizing something. They are just the remains of the war. In fact, they can be monuments again. It depends on how they are shot. If the photographer had chosen the angle of looking upside instead of panoramic format, the subjects would much more look like monuments. However, making fake monuments in this way is not the photographer’s job. He rather focused on divided areas without monuments. There are only few monuments of the division in the areas on north latitude 38° in Korea and the states. They were faded away as time went by. People comfortably sleep, take walk or build apartments on the monuments. So the photographer chose the angle that can show us the war about to be forgotten. His photos are not just capturing the moments. The panoramic format he chose is like soft eyes watching the land. The angle didn’t just aim at certain subject and capture it. It’s like the angle taking a walk on the land. There is no hurry about. Reunification takes time. The photographer’s point of view, which plows the landscape of the national division as farmers do on fields, will never stop.
Youngjun Lee, a photograph critic
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Space between Creation and Destruction
Jihyun Jung
“Topos koinos,” or the shared common space, is in danger of extinction. Cities are only used as indicators of economy or politics, and no longer function as a place of living, which used to be their essence. Blinded by extravagant plans of develop¬ment and a greed for money, people are giving up spaces for their lives, dashing toward the isolating urbanization of func¬tion hidden behind pieces of metal. My work documents the construction and demolition that lie beyond that metal barrier. Expressed in the images are spaces that briefly exist over the course of either creation or destruction, cut off so that we cannot approach, cannot recognize its form. I enter these urbanized and disconnected spaces in an exploration that targets the perspective of looking back at a place we once lived, after the urbanization race for “growth” has come to an end.
Demolition Site I sneaked into a building that was scheduled to be torn down, and painted the inner walls red before I photographed them. After the demolition I went in again, looking for traces of that red paint. By documenting the red walls that were broken down into smaller and smaller pieces as the building was de¬stroyed, I chased after the fate of this red room that would, in the end, disappear into the void as an anonymous piece of concrete. The red room was a private space that dissolved when faced with a system of redevelopment. I reveal what kind of space the city we are living in is, and how the city as a place of community is vanishing. It is how I raise questions about the rash thoughtlessness of urbanization. Finding the red room where traces of an individual’s life still reside from within the spectacle of demolition is a work to recover and recognize the city as a place for living. The photographs were taken at the demolition sites of Lu 1 City in Gajeong-dong, Incheon, and Deokcheon maeul, Anyang. Neither site exists today.
Construction Site A construction site is where the act of destroying nature collides with the act of creating a place to live. It does not exist until the apartments are completed and a functional space appears amidst high-speed urbanization. From the interiors of the structures, I was able to find a point that conflicts with the di¬chotomy of construction sites. Then, by interfering with the order of the functional matters and discovering their tranquil side, I tried to express this seemingly rational, objective construction site as a personal and emotional space. These images were taken while exploring the construction sites of large apartment complexes that are now complete and fully functioning as homes in Pangyo New City in Bundang, Cheongra New City in Incheon, and Shinnae Development sites in Seoul.
Construction Site Dreg Building materials have their own function and usually remain as part of the building. However, sometimes the materials are disposed, re-classified and then recycled as new materials. These remnants from the construction sites have become a good subject for my photography. Although the residues were partly functioning until the architecture is completed, they are disposed upon completion of construction, losing their functionalities and then are re-classified as a different object. However, I think this is the moment of rebirth to integral perfection. Remnants are the result of unforeseen calculation of functionalism but I consider them not as garbage, but as objects of functionalism without any fixed formats.
north latitude 38°
Youngchuel Ji
Before modern times, spaces were formed by a close association among people, but today, they become abstract with appearance of absolute space, the space with coordinate system. Advances in geographic science, typified by latitude and longitude, enable spatial ideas to be recorded with coordinate system. Latitude and longitude marked in detailed maps are separated from the existence of objects in abstract spaces. On the earth, there are a number of points and lines of the coordinates that shows the location of each space. Those belong to latitude, the coordinate system which uses degrees, minutes, and seconds as its units to mark locations. For example, we can mark the equator using 0 degree, the geographical North Pole using 90 degrees north and the South Pole using 90 degrees south. We are located on the surface of the earth, and it feels like that we are living in the spatial continuity. Seen from the universe, the spaces marked by latitude become one space on the same line. Thus all the marks on the earth, including the one marking my location, exist in the same space. Spaces exist even when people can't see them. I turn my eyes upon them. On the virtual lines, there are lots of stories including history, culture, society, countries and human beings. Those stories which have continuity and discontinuity at the same time make lines and spaces on the earth. The starting point of my first voyage following virtual lines is the line of 38 degrees north. I took first step from this strange line, where a virtual line exists as a real one. The lines of latitude have length, but they don't have width or volume, because they are collections of dimensionless dots. However, on the line of 38 degrees north in Korea, an ideological space is formed like a 3 dimension figure. Following this line, I could see the same scenery on the line in the United States. On my next step, in China, and the next step in Japan, I also could meet the same scenery. On the line, not only yesterday but also today and tomorrow exist, forming a space of temporality. I'm walking down the invisible line.
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