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Explore new possibilities of the DMZ through various artists' artworks in this section of the DMZ exhibition which is conceptualized as a "now" space displaying the "present" time and space of the DMZ.
DMZ Peace Bell DMZ Peace Bell by Kyuchul AhnREAL DMZ PROJECT
Kyuchul Ahn, DMZ Peace Bell
Ahn's artwork created with the remains of a barbed wire fence that was demolished from the DMZ.
"The wall has always been experienced only as what lies before us. Our imaginations always halted before it..."
DMZ Peace Bell by Kyuchul AhnREAL DMZ PROJECT
"...we could not see the rear side of the wall, nor imagine the space beyond it, between the two walls. From the peak, where the bunkers used to be, the sound of the bell... From the peak, where the bunkers used to be, the sound of the bell would spread far beyond the border of the North and South."
"...the barbed wire that once separated a people now makes a sound that brings them together. A space of tension and hostility towards the enemy becomes the point of origin for a message of peace and recovery.”— Excerpt from the artist's note
Needling Whisper, Needle Country SMS Series in Camouflage Big Smile C 01-01-03 (2014/2015) by Kyungah HamREAL DMZ PROJECT
Kyungah Ham, Needling Whisper, Needle Country/ SMS Series in Camouflage/ Are you lonely too? C 01-01-02, Kyungah Ham, Needling Whisper, Needle Country/ SMS Series in Camouflage/ Big Smile C 01-01-03
Ham's embroidery works made by North Korean seamstresses, contacted indirectly through brokers. Discreetly passed through risky back-routes in China, Ham's images were created by crossing physical, political and psychological borders.
The process included middle men, tension, anxiety, censorship, secret codes, ideology, sometimes bribery and thousands of hours of labor. Ham's embroidery projects reflect the restrictions and limitations inherent in the political devision of the Korean peninsula.
Eulji Theater Eulji Theater by Yeondoo JungREAL DMZ PROJECT
Yeondoo Jung, Eulji Theater
The artist visited the DMZ over fifty times and took a series of photographs there for one year from December 2017, when tensions were at their peak, to December 2018, when a pacific mood began to prevail.
Eulji Theater by Yeondoo JungREAL DMZ PROJECT
He selected 13 observatories among those in the DMZ's eastern front to the western front, and visited them each seasons to take photos. The observatories, having become popular sites of "security tourism," are regarded as discrete "theaters" in the artist's conception.
These photographs include a dual component of fictional mise-en-scene and documentation, as they include actors nonchalantly posing among the tourists.
The 13 single-act plays tell stories about the DMZ as seen from the observatories.
My Life in War by Seung Woo BackREAL DMZ PROJECT
Seung Woo Back, My Life in War
This artwork, a Trivision display, shows three images by rotating the sides of a series of prisms. To the artist, over the time, the DMZ came to have the appearance of a space of promotion and advertisement rather than of ideology and war.
My Life in War by Seung Woo BackREAL DMZ PROJECT
According the the artist's belief that the concept of promoting and advertising in the DMZ could operate domestically, the advertisement board displays images of our GP, reserve forces training field, views of the DMZ, and troops in training.
My Life in War by Seung Woo BackREAL DMZ PROJECT
"People born and raised in Korea," says the artist, "have been educated under the pretext of ideology and justice. They are educated and brainwashed into certain opinions, rather than judging for themselves. I likewise do not want to judge what is right and wrong, nor can I."
D.O.F. (Degrees of Freedom) D.O.F. (Degrees of Freedom) by Tomás SaracenoREAL DMZ PROJECT
Tomas Saraceno, D.O.F. (Degrees of Freedom)
Seraceno has manipulated a standard public binoculars in the Peace Observatory, originally fixed and directed towards the DMZ and North Korea, so that it now rotates in all directions.
This artwork is based on the artist's thought that panopticon of the Cold War to be creating a problem of overfocusing: a phenomenon known as a "focusing illusion".
