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| An image taken in Samseon-dong as part of the Cul De Sac Ville project. / Courtesy of Lee Jooyoung and Klega |
By Jon Dunbar
Seongbuk Young Art Space in northeastern Seoul is hosting "Cul De Sac Ville," a multimedia exhibition by artists Lee Jooyoung and Klega, until this Friday, showcasing various features of the urban fabric of nearby Samseon-dong.
Lee moved to Samseon 5-Guyeok last year, after hearing the neighborhood, lying right outside Seoul's city walls, was slated for redevelopment in 2020. Despite the area's deep historic connection and convenient location, she describes it as "totally off the radar," compared to more prominent urban renewal zones such as Euljiro's commercial/industrial Sewoon 3-Guyeok area that was recently demolished.
"That's the main reason I wanted to work on this area," she told The Korea Times.
She invited Klega, a German artist who has been visiting Korea since 2003, to help her document and observe the neighborhood and its "erasure" by urban renewal.
"The work became an investigation into layers of materials, much as an archaeologist or detective might document their findings as they shift through different surfaces," Lee said.
Her photo series, sorted into 20 categories including "Blocked Windows" and "Fake Materials," focuses on the variety of transformations undergone by materials, ranging from rotting fruit to concrete poured long ago. She began placing little yellow placards, much like a forensic photographer might use, in the frame of her images, creating a "forensic gaze" that helps viewers see the photos more objectively. The photos are available in a small wooden drawer for visitors to sort through at the center.
Klega, meanwhile, aimed his camera at walls, showing where structures of varying materials and ages come together.
"I am curious about these raw wounds that appear everywhere in the fabric of Seoul," he said. "The layers of social development and its associated visual cultures bed down creating cultural strata which fold and move around. At certain fractures you see many of these layers at the same time, especially in or at the borders between old developments and new ones. It appears like time is bent and fractured here."
They compiled two videos of their photos paired with music, titled "forensic gaze" and "welcome to cul de sac ville," both now playing on a loop at the art space.
The two of them have been quietly observing the area for a couple years now, and hope to continue the project into the future.
"Redevelopments are everywhere and it is good to be able to focus on a single one on a long-term basis," Klega said.
"Feels like I live in a brutal city. We are always eating ourself up. We need a sense of place not just homogeneity of apartments," Lee said.
"You lose a city's structure, human relations and the way it is used when you plonk these large-scale sites in the middle of a district," Klega said. "They are like the holes in a Swiss cheese and at some point there is no cheese left."
Despite their words, neither artist is wholly opposed to progress and urban development.
"In the beginning, I was strongly against redevelopment of new high-rises but discovered some old badly built houses need to be rebuilt," Lee said. "For me it's more about the management of city redevelopment that I'm interested in. I'm questioning the scale and appropriate design of the place."
"I am not here to oppose," Klega added. "I try to learn what is happening and find a way how to communicate about it as an artist."
Visit culdesacville.home.blog for more information.
