DMZ Vault of Life and Knowledge

Minsuk Cho’s DMZ Vault of Life and Knowledge began as a contribution to the collective project Dreaming of Earth ... initiated by artist Jae-Eun Choi in 2015, which appointed the vibrant ecosystem of the DMZ as an essential starting point for the peaceful coexistence of the two Koreas. The project began with a “floating garden,” an elevated path that follows the Yeokgok Stream, a tributary of the Hantan River within the DMZ in Cheorwon. Choi’s initial request was for a seed bank at the northern entrance of the floating garden and an ecology library at the southern entrance. These two symbiotic facilities are prescribed with preparation spaces both above ground and below for the safe-keeping of “life” and “knowledge.” When Cho discovered these facilities started from the point where the border and the tunnel—the two tragic lines made by mankind—intersect, he suggested reutilizing the existing Cheorwon Tunnel, currently a site for military tourism, in order to minimize physical intervention. This 3.5km tunnel accommodates the most optimal conditions of a protective vault as it passes deep below the mountainous DMZ terrain. Like a kind of“landscape acupuncture,” it symbolizes the relief of the divided land from decades of tension and allows for a flow of new energy.