The REAL DMZ PROJECT Committee is pleased to present a solo exhibition of Soyoung Chung, who was the first artist-in-residence at the Yangji-ri Residency. The exhibition, which will be on view from July 28, 2016 at the Offsite Art Sonje, opens to the public a community engagement program that was organized in Yangji-ri, a village that is located within the Civilian Control Zone, in the form of artworks. With the purpose of producing cultural dialogues on spaces and objects and sharing layers of meanings behind the DMZ, the exhibition shows how the Yangji-ri residency has served as an institutional infrastructure in which an artist’s creative practices based on locality and historicity can be expanded to multiple cultural forms and integrated artistic programs.

The exhibition takes its title, Night and Day, from the artist’s sensorial experience from Yangji-ri Residency where sharp lights and desolate darkness coexist. The natural landscape that is fully exposed, as if reflecting on the openness of the Cheorwon plain, maximizes the contrast between light and dark, especially in comparison with the urban environment that is constantly surrounded by light and sound. The multiple historical layers that are created within Yangji-ri from the Japanese colonial era, post-liberation Korea, pre- and post-Korean war periods, North-South migrations, destructions, and reconstructions, also present psychological contrasts. The borders that were created by the special situation that is the Korean War, as well as the distances and the artificial spaces in between, create a sense of tension with the contrast between light and day. Such tension resonates with Chung’s interpretation of Yangji-ri, as a metaphor for a stage that changes drastically according to light situations.

The repetition of borders and layers of time are visualized in the installation Light, Temperature, Wind. The artist produced the work with shading nets, plastic sheets, and windshields on top of deconstructed frames from vinyl greenhouses that can be commonly seen across the village. The installation, which appears as if it is suspended from the ceiling and is floating, the DMZ that was created from multiple borders from the Korean War, or villages that belong to the Civilian Control Zone such as Yangji-ri. The artist also presents Stone, Horizon, House Party, which are three video works that were produced during the residency. The objects that the artist created—shining stones, pipes, and vinyl greenhouses—substantiate the artist’s interest in light and space within the DMZ where contrasting notions coexist. The exhibition also presents Ori Mountain, a candle sculpture that takes its form from basalt rocks that can only be found in Cheorwon and Jeju within South Korea, and was produced out of beeswax that she purchased from a Yangji-ri local who works as a beekeeper.

The REAL DMZ PROJECT Committee hopes that this exhibition, which will be on view until October 2, 2016, is an opportunity to consider the sensorial elements that exist in the seemingly obvious, everyday appearance of the DMZ.

* Visiting Hours: 11am – 6pm (Closed on Mondays)
* 2016.09.14-16 Closed on Korean Thanksgiving Day