Fictional Universe_ Look Inside

“Historical sense”, a perception of both timelessness and time, and indicates that time can also be perceived as endless. Tradition is constructed in this sense. It makes artists aware of their own positions in time and that of modernism. Neither poet nor artist can have exclusive meaning his or her own.1

As we carefully navigate our way through the darkness and walk into a narrow space filled with inexplicable anxiousness, we find Im Heung-soon’s “Sung Si”2. This is where we encounter a visual symptom or establishment of a new tradition as opposed to a contemporary artwork that reinterprets the history of .

Symptom and Sing_The Beginning of the story

“Praying and Pleading_Jeju 4. 3” and “Sung Si” is an exhibition about the Jeju Uprising3 that is often compared with the horrendous . The artist had spent two years on reconnaissance of Jeju Island and developed works based on records and testimonies of the incident. They feature what connects the past and present of our society and revolve around the central topic of Jeju. This main plot simultaneously links confidential privacy with the grandeur or historical structure. It is composed of six pieces of which Sung Si is the core piece. The gallery display is connected to “Passage B” and is considered crucial to the exhibition. “Passage B” features the passage that survivors undertook at that time through the mountain area. It connects each venue with the pieces and delivers an atmosphere of a cave that consequently offers the audience the experience of fear boundless. So, “Passage B” interconnects each of the pieces that have been developed structured around the central issue, Jeju Uprising. They’re interconnected like a spider web. The audience is able to sense the precise and sophisticated inner discipline as they follow the black passage and can concentrate on the narration by the artist. When the audience finally arrives at the venue, they are shown a video with the camera angled to the mountain forest of Jeju. This, of course, contains its own production and reinterpretation. With more narration, this black passage leads the audience back to Jeju in 1948.

From the early spring of that year, there were plenty of ominous symptoms, namely Sung Si. It has been said that nature ominously predicted this holocaust with two morning stars, split Bamboo branches and the death of many white tadpoles. The Jeju Uprising today is merely a document in Korean modern history that has only been transferred abstractly, and we’d rather remember Jeju Island as a tourist destination with beautiful sceneries instead. In Im Heung-soon’s case, he could accept this tragic

1 to see, Eliot, T. S. Critical Essay (London: Faber & Faber, 1932) pp14-15., Re-cited from Said, E. W. Culture and Imperialism (Korean Translated Version, Translated by Kim, Sung Gon and Jung, Jung Ho, Seoul: Chang 2011) 2 Jeju dialect refers to a symptom or misfortunate accident 3 Jeju Uprising was a revolt on Jeju Island of , beginning on April 3, 1948. (The whole incident initiated from 1st March 1947 and lasted until 21st September 1954). Armed clash and suppression resulted numerous lives death. (Special Act on the Jeju Uprising, Truth Revealing and Regaining Victim’s Honor, 2000) After Japanese Occupation, Korean Peninsula was under the control of US Military government, this incident occurred while protesting against the social problems under the US Military Authority and for the Establishment of South Korean government. There was the armed suppression by the US Military despite of the cease-fire talks (May 1948). There were the innocent approx. 25,000 to 30,000 individuals were killed in fighting or execution between various factions on the island for 7 years and 7 months under the agreement from South Korean government. Since then, branded as ‘Red Island’, Jeju residents have suffered from the guilt –by-association system. On 31st October 2010, Former President Roh Moo Hyun admitted ‘massive sacrifice from the state power’ and made a public apologies. In 2005, Jeju Island was declared as an ‘Island of World Peace’. incident in a realistic sense after he met his girlfriend’s maternal grandmother.4 The grandmother’s husband, Kim Bong-Soo5 was executed by fire squad when he was 22. After that, suffering marred the grandmother’s life. In Sung Si, the framework revolves around the grandmother’s life space and her personal story. Their story moves and extends over different locations in Jeju including the Gang Jung Village6, Osaka7, mount. Halla and the Oreum forests8. Im Heung-soon differentiates aspects of social critical visual art popular from the 1980s. Although there still is a common point about the primal theme and critical perspective, rather than grand discourse, he reveals this in a strictly personal history and a closer network.

This tendency previously appeared in his early work Memento. This work displayed parallels between a video about a day when his family went a studio to take a family photo and old memorial photos of his parents. He chose to display two different images simultaneously that reflected a complex part of Korean modern history through the history of laborer parents. He constantly worked on the subjects of peripheries, marginal spaces and abandoned history throughout various projects like “Succeed Public Art”, “GeumChun Mrs”, “No. 85 Crane” and others. In these works and projects he depicted the grand flow of history and harsh slogans are transformed into a somewhat closer friendlier story of our neighbourhood. This aspect consequently extended his works into a realm of itself. This approach can be understood as overcoming the weakness of the influential Minjung Art9 (People’s Art) in the 1980s as well as offering a more appealing way for us to live in this contemporary era. For this, he usually uses Vox Pop and archives. Interviewing is, in particular, a striking method to record endless information and space and is the foundation of his style.

The stories of interviewees are generally captured without a fixed or prepared narrative. Yet they remain as potential voices and are realized in the present along with their manners in specific scenes while Im Heung-soon stands in front of them as the listener. His recorded video conveys not only their ‘lingual voices’ but also their songs, motions and dances that underwent subjective editing of their stories in an aesthetic form.

This interviewing method plays on enormously important role in this exhibition. It is

4 Kim Min-Kyung, Co-Curator and Producer of this project. 5 Sent over to the Military law trial and sentenced death when he was a teacher at No-Hyoung Elementary School, he was killed by the police’s group shooting execution in HwaBook. The grandmother’s name is Kang Sang-hee aged of 24 at that time. 6 Gang Jung Village, Dae-cheon dong in the City of Seoguipo. Water is very valuable in Jeju because it’s an island. But surprisingly there are a lot of water in this area, and named Gang Jung which stands for Chinese characters that both mean Water. The seaside of this area was appointed as ‘Eco Reserved Zone’ by UNESCO, then was designated as ‘Definite Reserved Area’, ‘Ecosystem Reserved Area’ and ‘Cultural-Assets Reserves Zone’. In 2007, government proclaimed establishment of the Naval Base, which is currently under the construction. 7 Jeju residents who escaped from the death to Osaka, and now live in Ikonoku as a community. They only speak Jeju dialect.. 8 Refer to the small round-shaped knolls in Mt Halla on the island. 9 Min Joong Art was a South Korean political, populist and realism art movement, born in 1980. Initiated from the establishment of ‘Reality and Utterance’(1979), the early period was lined up for enabling art with liberal democratic based on the organizing the ‘National Art Association’. Their works were usually exhibited at the ‘Min Gallery’. Minjung artists used visual arts, especially painting, woodblocks, folk paintings, craft works, hanging paintings and cartoons which were practiced for the realization of art from the society. In the later period, they took the people’s democratic reformation of society while preparing the establishment of ‘National Association of the Minjung Art’. After the June Struggle in 1987, there were also local and young art movements raised. as if simple and immature individual thoughts and feelings got tangled in a single video Upon careful re-examination you’ll notice, various meanings of layers are piled to establish a kind of oral literature. Those deepened layers of meanings have been revealed from the accumulated narrative throughout the video, and his interview makes it possible for us to understand this and be closer to the incident and Jeju culture overall. Furthermore, it arouses more sympathy and appeals to the audience because of Im's attempt to maintain objectivity.

“I don’t want to talk about one side of the story either from the Militant Group (Moojangdae, members of the South Korean Labor Party who raised arms and went into the mountain area) or the Punitive Forces (Toebuldae, including policemen, soldiers and members of the Northwestern Youth Group). I would like to understand both sides because we are all capable of being both perpetrator and victims at the same time.”

He has maintained the same position in this Jeju project while interviewing cultural activists who worked after the 1990s and covered their testimonies about the Jeju Uprising. The attitude maintained by the artist asserts that culture including visual art is partly independent from economic, social and political boundaries as it recalls what happened. Therefore he can create various layers to appreciate pleasure in an existing aesthetic form of all operating practice.10

Night and Woman_Into the Story

At that time, the island was divided by day and night. The Militant Group was moving around during the night time and the Punitive Forces during the day. Jeju residents who held opposing left and right ideologies for whatever reasons perished in cruel and numerous ways. The island was isolated. Since then, the memory of the island has also been isolated. Im Heung-soon recalls those memories that had been erased and and he raises questions about where we find ourselves now. He substitutes as the invisible thread connecting those isolated and foreign times and spaces. “Passage B” and “Sung Si” is embedded throughout and plays important roles in the exhibition.

“Passage B” follows a path via the mountain for people in hiding like the case of the Darangshwi Cave11. This narrow and dark passage connects the venue where the forest in the video is played out namely “Sung-Si”. The camera follows a member of the Militant Group, Lee Duk Ku(1920-1949)12 and the scenery quickly changes to that of the forest of the Halla mountain.13 forest that takes up a significant space in this

10 Said, E. W. p. 22. 11 Immediately after the North Korean attack on South Korea which opened the Korean War, the South Korean military ordered “preemptive apprehension” of suspected leftists nationwide. Thousands were detained on Jeju, then sorted into four groups labeled A, B, C and D, based on the perceived security risks each posed. On August 30, 1950, a written order by a senior intelligence officer in the South Korean Navy instructed Jeju’s police to “execute all those in groups C and D by firing squad no later than September 6.” In March 1950, North Korea sent thousands of armed insurgents to resuscitate the guerrilla fighting on Jeju, but by this time the South Korean army had become particularly adept at counterinsurgency and quashed the new in only a few weeks. South Korean soldiers assaulted villages and took away young men and girls. The young men were executed, and girls were also executed after they had been gang raped over weeks. Seventy percent of Jeju island villages were burned by the troops. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeju_Uprising 12 The Second Captain General of Militant Group as well as a symbolic figure of Jeju Uprising. After studied in Japan, he also worked as a teacher at Chochun Middle School in Jeju. Shot dead by the police nearby Saryuni Forest (assertion of the police at that time) his body was publicly displayed in Gwandukjung. 13 To be specific, it’s moving via certain spot situated nearby Saryuni (means ‘divineness’ in Jeju dialect) Forest. Lee Duk Ku’s unit, the headquarter of Militant Group stationed temporarily here in spring 1949 and waged the final resistance. The place is now called ‘Lee Duk Ku’s mountain field’ exhibition. They went into the forest for survival but most of them died and were subsequently buried there to become a part of it. Nowadays, Jeju Island is recognized as an eco-friendly environment and promotes Ollegil14 with an ocean surrounding the island. The tourist images, created by the military government in the 1970s, and highlighted and expose their attempt to conceal and isolate the truth. Jeju is still passionate about being selected as one of the ‘New 7 Wonders of Nature’15.

Now the video screen is covered with a group of crows, their crows and dark wings flapping. The scene changes to a misty field in the 4.3 Peace Park and recalls the mediators between this life and the afterlife. The wind blows through the field. A cornfield is swaying back and forth. The song of a grandmother from Gasiri comes out and spreads like concentric circles on the wings of the wind. This song is a labor song that has been sung by people working on fields that existed for a long time. This song was created from a village community containing the joy and sorrow of life as well as helping them to regain the energy of life. Because of this, singing in exhausting working conditions has created unity amongst people. It recognizes the artistic nature16 associated with literature and music because of the voice of its lyrics and melodies at the present time.

This song and rhythm that ties with the labor also continuously in the interviewee’s reconstructed way again from “Very Private Museum 3” (Archive, Video installation, Variable Size, 2011) in which Im Heung Soon highlighted the life of female workers in Guro Industrial Complex. It was an export industry and industrial complex in the 1970s and recorded as their community. The central authorities commonly disintegrated 2 places. The space, then again moves to the grandmother’s place where they are preparing the grandfather’s memorial service and it is filled with various images, which mark the life of the grandmother. Combining literature and musical sense based on traditionally inherited lyrics and melodies expressed through voice, the artistic value of the Jeju song is recognized. Im constantly uses this song and motion related to labor with the interviews in “Very Private Museum 3” (Archive, Video installation, Variable Size, 2011) which highlighted the life of female workers in Guro Industrial Complex that used to be an industrial complex to export Korean products in 1970s. Both videos commonly observe the disorganization of communities by the central authorities. Then, the video moves to the grandmother's house as she is preparing her husband's memorial service. Just like a dangling helpless insect on the spider web in the house, the camera captures different snapshots of her life within the space. The house, however, is filled with a news anchor’s voice regarding the Anniversary of the Jeju Uprising that transforms her very private house into a historical and public spot. In the video, there are sequences of a dreary street, a tangerine lying on the cement, a candlelight that cherishes the memory of the dead and a trembling citrus tree as if calling the spirit. They are all fused into the long

14 Olle road refers to a 24-route walking trail in Jeju Island, South Korea. Aided by a recent “walking boom” in South Korea, Ollegil is now a tourist attraction, which attracts not only visitors from mainland South Korea, but also foreigners who have a taste for hiking. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olle_road 15 New 7 Wonders of the World(2001-2007) was an initiative started in 2001 by the Swiss corporation New7Wonders Foundation to choose Wonders of the World from a selection of 200 existing monuments. It was the first in a planned series of lists; in 2007 the foundation launched New7Wonders of Nature, which was the subject of voting until Nov. 11, 2011. The New7Wonders Foundation claimed that more than 100 million votes were cast through the Internet or by telephone. Nothing prevented multiple votes, so the poll was considered “decidedly unscientific”. Increasing the expectation of raising international tourists, Jeju government is criticized by the lack of management capacity against unreliable reaction of the foundation. 16 to see, Kim, T. et al. An Introduction: Korean Oral Literature (MinSokWon, 1995) history of the land and intermingle with the image of the grandmother who has hidden an ornamental silver knife under the bud. They are all part of her everyday life and seems somewhat peaceful to the audience. At the same time, the place also has a memory of violent invasion and delivers uncomfortable emptiness.

In the video , the text of Sun Si first appeared after showing a crack in a weedy cave and the rattling of an abandoned door. According to the Gasiri grandmother’s testimony, in the year of the Jeju Uprising, a lot of flowers bloomed in bamboo trees and two morning stars appeared. With fleeting images of contemporary Jeju, here we can realize that the artist testifies about the anxiety and Sung Si living in contemporary Jeju. The video moves to another scene showing some of the women who escaped the incident in Osaka, Japan as taking Sung-Si as a stepping-stone. The grandmothers living in both Jeju and Osaka experienced the tragic incident together and have survived it in their own spaces. They are now in front of us appearing as the subject of testimony, rather than simple victims. But these stories are very personal and private and acquire no official status. As Im mentioned, each of them remembers and understands it differently as their spaces and time have been mixed. However, these individual stories reflect the life of that time concretely and realistically as they naturally drag the audience into the narrative and offer deeper and wider understanding of history beyond any official records or discourse. The role of language here in particular pulls the main subject into our consciousness and reconstructs it with a new appearance. That is to say that life is visualized in our consciousness, therefore, language as a tool of delivering the story have enormously important meaning. But these grandmothers have never had a chance to deliver their language so far and even lost one. This is also a vital point that the artist precisely proves how tragic the reality was that initiated from Sung-Si without associating it with more direct testimonies regarding the holocaust and death.

The space moves back to Jeju again. When the screen lights up it shows a scene of the combat police watching their smart phones while resting in a creek while being confronted by protestors confronting against them in Gangjung Village. These armed forces were sent from the mainland to take Jeju Island and stop the protests, which ironically was known as the island of peace back in 194817. Especially, by capturing a grandmother describing the seafront of her hometown in Gangjung Village in Japan who's forgotten her first language Korean, the artist's intention becomes lucid. He links the fragmented time and space of Jeju at this scene and reveals its contradiction to grasp the essence of the incident. With the other words, the artist claims that something that could not be solved throughout history inevitably repeats itself. He delivers this message in an obvious manner through a very metaphorical and symbolic way. His opinions of all related issues like the protests against the US Navy in Gangjung Village are determined evidently by the words of experts in current affairs programmes and television news or the “100 minute Discussion” that flows from the grandmother’s house. This background narrative reaches its peak at the moment when he cites the Democratic MP, Kim Jae Yoon quoting the Pope as “modern countries

17 On May 1948, Military Groups and Police forces in Jeju had readily collaborated a cease-fire agreement. But US Military government refuged it, ordered a firm suppression and sent armed forces. It is said that among Jeju residents a sentence ‘Black dog is coming.’ had spread taking at the soldiers’ black uniform. At that time, some members of National Security Team rejecting the order to suppress Jeju resulted another tragic incident, 1948 Yosu-Sunchon Incident. Later, Lee Seungman government established National Security Law. In these days, the mayor of Seoguipo City made a conclusion with Gangjung residents and soon after discharged from his position. Combat police forces were sent from the mainland, and similar situation has happened as people say ‘Things are coming from mainland.’ will be destroyed by competition of armaments”.

At the same time, images of crows, crabs and rats fill the screen diligently to carry Sung Si of our modern society. But these are certainly different from Sung Si compared to nature at that time. This is because they are represented warnings against our society that the artist himself chose to show. In this medley of crossing sequences filled with constant anxiety, there is a dance club of Gasiri Women’s Society and protesters from the Gangjung Village confronting combat police forces and a Shamanistic song playing in the background. Most Jeju residents linked with the Jeju Uprising had died by the end of Korean War and the remaining survivors who leaked stories about it had to be killed. Death at that time consequently became something confidential that no one was allowed to announce publicly. So, individuals had to resolve and heal their own minds, and wives who lost husbands and mothers who lost sons had to pray at places like Simbang18. The sacred song heard in the video background is essential, traditional and religious Korean music, Shamanistic Music ( 巫歌). Gut (Shaman Rite) has a great significance as a people’s festival, and the Shamanistic song played in Gut is usually performed for healing spirits as a piece of art work which consoled people’s souls and hopes. But the ruined Simbang in Osaka has little will to console these spirits. Time kept flowing.

If one climbs up to Darangshwi Oreum you can see the beautiful nature of Jeju that surrounds the hill. Tourists usually stroll thoughtlessly along the ridge. After being faced with the reality of numerous deaths, that beauty suddenly turns into something sorrowful. There are other objects floating around like a butterfly and humble plastic bags that come in and out view, as if expressing what is invisible in a metaphorical way.

Coming back to the grandmother’s house, there is TV coverage broadcasting the official memorial service. In one frame the grandmother is expressionless and others reflect photography of the young grandfather in his youth with official commentary from Kim Sungsoo acting as representative of the bereaved. In fact, the grandmother does not care about anything related to the central authority. She lives each day and prays to be saved. This scene symbolizes the Jeju Uprising that encounters contemporary time that had gone through such a long time. Lastly, the audience is brought down from the mountain beyond the ‘Nameless Scenery’ where life and death coexists in the past and present in the dark night.

Long Goodbye _ The Story Ends

Coming out of the video gallery from “Passage B”, one reaches the second gallery composed of a green forest and red wall with images. Instead of photographs and archives, here Im reveals his idea in a more direct manner. First, “Archive of the Dead” contains Kim Bongsoo’s seal19, Lee Dukku’s spoon20, Kim Jooik’s tape(1963- 2003)21 and a tangerine, “Orange and Green” by Poet Kim Sungju (1947)22. Kim

18 Commonly used in Jeju referring to Shamanistic priest, Moo Kyuk(巫覡) 19 6 months after his death, the corpse was identified by the seal in the jacket. 20 Reproduction of spoon put in the jacket of the dead body that was publicly shown in Gwandukjung. 21 Chairman of Hanjin Heavy Industry Union in 2003. Went up to No. 85 Crane and stayed there for 129 days to fight Jooik and Lee Dukku are the ones who took responsibility for the unhappy lives of people at that time; one went up to the mountain and the other went to the 35 metre high crane. Neither of them came down alive. So, the poet’s tangerine contains and symbolizes both the past and future.

“I have thought about this once. Unless red and blue colors admit their difference, the mixture would be murky. It will become black. Then everyone dies. So I thought about what color would be the neutral. I suppose that orange and green are such. But in order to make these we need yellow. And now I am thinking of how to make that yellow.”23

Therefore, the green forest trees and photographs of tangerine trees taken in Jeju and Yongin at Gyeunggi Province appearing in the Nameless Scenery series have significant meaning in many ways. As the artist mentioned, while working with thoughts about Jeju, these stories are not limited to Jeju. Instead, Im calls on the Jeju Uprising and related characters to the contemporary era after mixing time and space in the exhibition. Because the artist wants his art works to be interpreted differently and accordingly rather than limited by the artist’s sole perspective. This Nameless Scenery cannot be visualized by any kinds of imagination or information, but possibly seen with the least amounts of efforts. That is to say, Nameless Scenery can be only seen by those willing to see it.

However, this is a story of people related to such history stained by ideologies. The artist himself claims that art is art and reality would not be able to be reality. So, the pain of others won’t end up as their pain. The artist asks and answers, Is dying or salvation the only way to overcome such reality?” With this notion, it seems like that artistic imagination about reality or absurd art depends on a desperate life that could be more important.

Two men swimming at the sea shore of Hamduk expressed his imagination. Lee Dukku and Kim Jooik are shown along with the background music of Long Goodbye. As the forest completes its existence via circulation of vitality, his prayer hoping for that a better life for humans could be realized by encountering the past and present. On the other hand, Jeju Note which is placed in the middle of the gallery so as not to encroach upon the essence of the Jeju Uprising. Also, a source book of crosscut edited photos arranged in the reporter’s way and record photos of the US military government era testify to who the principle offender and the conspirator of this holocaust were, and what their methods entailed. But even at this point, the artist does not cling to the universal but superficial subjects like nationalism or antiwar. Barring any explanation, it roughly lets viewers decide for themselves based on what they perceive. But one thing is clear, the incident captured in fading photographs reaffirm what have remained in the back of people’s minds. The sky at that time must be as beautiful as today and the tangerine must be as sweet as ever. But we would no longer remember Jeju as it was described in the tourist poster.

back the right of Hanjin workers and hung himself. This 8mm Video Tape was firsthand recorded at the scene. 22 Poet, born 1947 in Jeju. Came down from mountain as half dead attacked by the Militant Group. Both of his maternal and parental families were all parts of Workers Party South Korea, Militant Group and Punitive Force, and all died during Jeju Uprising. Himself suffered from the quilt –by-association. 23 Interview with poet, Kim Sungsoo on 2 April 2010. re-quote interview of the artist. A Fictional Universe _ A Look Inside

Since we are unable to create a universe where no one needs to work, eat, love, hate or sleep, we will similarly be unable to create a fictional world free from.24

In this exhibition Im Heung Soon deals with a tragic incident in Korean modern history. His way of looking into the essence of the incident from a personal story flows along with the notion of Korean contemporary art as socially seen from individual perspectives with a grand discourse after the 1990s. He also has the capacity to create a balance without reducing it to personal problems or hiding it behind his own world. At the same time, the stylistic development of narration and formation that do not force any notions or attitude help one to be closer to the essence of the incident and life. Because aren’t any extremes in his narrative with countless crossing spaces and stories the video is considered plain. But all the characters and objects in his work do his, her and its own portion one by one.There is simply no waste.

We continuously need to observe how he is going to deal with radical death and the fury of testimony because they are all real. But he insists on a symbolic language, Sung Si, and in doing so provokes certain responses from the audience by setting up the scene that equates to a black passage and dark cave. Unlike other exhibitions based on the same theme, this one has become something unique. In keeping with reality throughout using sincere reconstruction of stories, the video is careful not to overly explain or excessively force sentiments. This is the virtue of how the video leads the audience to concentrate up until the end. Embracing every story in one piece, Im ultimately and eventually authors a new narrative telling the tragedy of Korean modern history.

So he looked deep into the fictional universe created by someone else, and then raises his eyes to ask us what we’ve seen.

Soojung Kang Senior Curator, National Museum of Contemporary Art Korea

24 to see, Rushdie, S. Outside the Whale, pp. 100 -101, recited from Said, E.W., p. 81.