Boyoung CHANG

10.18399/acta.2023.26.2.008

North Korea Representation de-bodering liminality contemporary Korean art

Widely called the “hermit kingdom,” North Korea is one of the most reclusive countries in the world. In particular, for South Korea, although its past and present are deeply entwined with North Korea, physical access to the country is strictly denied. This study focuses on how contemporary South Korean artists have constructed North Korea as a liminal space in which reality and fiction, past and present collide. It analyzes contemporary artworks that attempt to de-border the other Korea. These works include Kwon Hayoun’s Model Village (2014), a video centered on a reconstruction of an uninhabited North Korean propaganda village on the edge of the DMZ, and Park Chan-kyong’s Sets (2000), a series of slides of a North Korean film studio that recreated the streets of Seoul and a South Korean movie set that included a replica of P’anmunjŏm. Based on the unique relationship between the two Koreas, the paper argues that contemporary South Korean art embodies the elusive reality of North Korea that defies the clear understanding of its truth. In addition, it shows that the ambiguous representation of North Korea is a compelling reminder of the long history of national division and the psychological and physical distance between the two Koreas. This de-bordering expands the epistemological frame through which to perceive Korea beyond that of a binary Cold War order framework.