Location: Venice Biennale 2014 Korean Pavilion
Program: Crow’s Eye View / The Korean Peninsula, Commissioner / Minsuk Cho, Co-Curator / Hyungmin Pai, Changmo Ahn
Status: Participating Artists of Golden Lion Award Winning Korean Pavilion Exhibition
Passive Borders. Active Ecologies.
Borders are typically understood as a line on a map. But there is great disjuncture between the map and reality. A line is an abstract symbol that demarcates boundaries that identify territorial limits. But the natural and artificial ecologies of a site, such as species migration, wind dispersal of seeds, surface watersheds, subsurface aquifers, air, water pollution, and telecommunication, radio signals, cannot be defined nor controlled by the line. And despite the presence of physical fences to demarcate and maintain the line, manmade borders are inherently passive, while natural and artificial ecologies actively establish inevitable porosities that defy control.
Although the DMZ is the most militarized border in the world, the natural and artificial ecologies of the site establish fluid sectional atmospheres and lithospheres along the territories. The DMZ in section reveals stratified spaces that extend beyond the surface and subsurface to reveal an expansive and active ecological system that accumulates the geological, ecological and cultural histories of the Korean peninsula.
VERTICAL DMZ attempts to expand our view of the border through the eyes of the Crow as well as the sensory systems of the Mole. We propose that the DMZ no longer be perceived as an iconic line of passive division, but as a three dimensional space of active expansion.
Project Director: Yehre Suh
Model Fabrication: Kennedy Fabrications
Project Team: Minsoo Kim, David Frank