[KS] Dongducheon: A Walk to Remember, A Walk to Envision

[Theodore Hughes]

Dear Korean Studies List Members,

For anyone who might be in the New York City area in May or June, the  
New Museum of Contemporary Art is partnering with Insa Art Space to  
present an exhibition entitled "Dongducheon: A Walk to Remember, A  
Walk to Envision."

For more information, please see the Overview pasted below and/or visit:
http://www.museumashub.org/neighborhood/insa-art-space

Sincerely,

Ted Hughes
Veterans For Peace (http://www.veteransforpeace.org/)

Overview
-Heejin Kim, Curator of International Projects, Insa Art Space

IAS has invited and commissioned new works by four artists: Sangdon  
KIM, KOH Seung Wook, RHO Jae Oon and Siren Eun Young Jung. A total of  
12 new pieces of work will be introduced: 4 at the New Museum opening  
in December 2007; 8 more at the IAS opening in May 2008. The agenda  
under discussion can be described by the following three focal points:

1. Contradictions manifest selectively according to political and  
economical conditions, and double-sided nationalism.

When going along with the flow of globalization in the world arena,  
diverse national and ethnic identities are recognized, yet minorities  
within a nation are expected to assimilate (one-way integration) to  
one unified mainstream norm.

After much talked about ?Alternativeness? that emerged from the  
politics of identity during the 90s, the questions of periphery,  
otherness and subaltern even further entrenched? What are the causes  
and next alternatives?

2. New awareness toward the historic, natural landscapes.

The landscape, architecture, housing, urban environment, industry, and  
languages of Dongducheon are the topologies of transplantation,  
refraction, conflicts, tension, and camouflage that the governmental  
system inflicts on the everyday life of the Dongducheon people.

What, then, are the official and unofficial agents that construct and  
control the localities of Dongducheon?

Can we trace topologies of coexistence and resistance, as well as  
survival strategies developed from the bottom of Dongducheon residents?

3. Autonomous politics and language of resistance.

What are unique narratives from Dongducheon? Is Logos, which is based  
on reason and rationality, an appropriate language or expressive  
medium to represent these narratives?

Is it possible to trace the language of resistance that the subalterns  
of Dongducheon have initiated, responding in the refracted  
communication, silence, alienation within their own community?

If so, what are the forms of conveyance and communication, and what  
critical impact do they have on undiscriminating globalization and on  
the nationalist culture which has been tacitly conforming to the  
global trend?
The four participating artists are responding to these agendas with  
their approaches and key concepts as follows (listed in alphabetical  
order):

1. Sangdon KIM

Reading the segmented territory of Dongducheon from the perspective of  
respective political interest and distrust, silence, alienation among  
the segments

Reading demography through indigenous local languages of Dongducheon
Operating as a facilitator/catalyst stimulating autonomous  
participation and raising critical social consciousness through direct  
interfacing with the Dongducheon residents and engaging them in  
restoring their own local identity

2. KOH Seung Wook

The absence of past memories and representational languages for the  
minorities in Dongducheon and extinction of autonomous local identity
The outlook for the future when autonomous civil society is the main axis

3. RHO Jae Oon

The question of representing Dongducheon in the past and contemporary  
Korea through meta-narrative between U.S. global military realignment  
(of which Dongducheon is a part) and  
Western-Hollywood-mega-entertainment industry

4. Siren Eun Young Jung

Social, political topologies perceived from architecture in Dongducheon
Gendered international relations based on military camptown women as  
an allegory

Narratives that were liquidated under militarism, gender politics,  
genderized international politics, nationalism and counter-language