[Sunghyeop Seo] Critical Essay/ Woo Hyunjung

The Right to be Here, the Monument to Save Today

Woo Hyunjung

A monument is a public sculpture built to honor a person or event. Most of them are signs of the nation's historical achievements, but on the contrary, they are also used as an important symbol in the rituals of reflection on not repeating past mistakes or following great sacrifices. The lesson of the monument is significant when it rescues the present from failure or at least delaying the failure, regardless of the success or failure of the past it has endured. In other words, the monument presupposes failure. Then, what kind of present was Sunghyeop Seo's Monument built on top of?

Topological Sense,

plywood stained with ink, motor, wooden marbles, mixed media,

240x300x300cm (Engineering Design_ARSIO),

2020

 

Ink-painted plywood was used as the main material for the 250-centimeter-high sculpture and was constructed by connecting Doric columns, one of the Greek-Roman architectural styles, with tetrapods that can be easily found around the breakwater. Overall, it follows the form of a tetrapod, but the upper part of the Doric column is transformed at the tip of the four legs to make a passage for the sound to flow back and forth. The two objects that make up this monument are typical things selected by the artist, and the two are the representatives of two worlds with very different properties because they have no point of contact in their origin, characteristic, or purpose. The meeting of two different beings leads to misunderstanding, alienation, and disconnection, and this is the reality underneath Seo's Monument. The same goes for the low narration flowing around the Monument and the strange languages that are written on the top pillar of the tetrapod. The story that is written in Polish consists of the episodes of mistranslation that occur when different cultures collide and the loopholes in stereotypes. The slight conversations between the artist and those who are close to him are things that would make you giggle and smirk. However, minor events that will enrich someone's life begin to ask about the individual's position in the social class as they are ignited by words (narrations) and writings (texts) within the Monument.

Gosu Paravan,

plywood stained with ink, drum, motor, arduino, speaker,

120x60x49cm (Engineering Design_ARSIO),

2021

 
The Monument is a being that moves away from the two objects that gave birth to it and floats out of orbit while losing its function. It cannot support or block something while staying in a place that is not a temple or an ocean. Due to such placelessness, the Monument could be easily pushed out of society and is difficult to be recognized. We are ungenerous at giving complete space because we believe that the act of welcoming and embracing new human and non-human members is only natural. (Let us think about the difference between refugees and tourists. The alienation of radical figures or hybrid objects is also the same case.) How it is received in reality is still important, and recognizing others becomes the cornerstone of acquiring my space. In that sense, the unfamiliar appearance of the Monument and the out-of-the-way style of conversation are disturbing and dangerous. Something that cracks familiar landscapes cannot be welcomed easily. The courage of creating a new place while claiming the right to be here is a gesture that makes someone uncomfortable. The Monument is a device that prevents concepts, such as freedom, equality, and tolerance, from becoming abstracted and is an anchor that holds them in place so that they are not scattered in the air by false declarations. In order for the present to not fail, more objects like the Monument are needed. The Monument testifies through its existence that you should not become used to the language, power, relationship, and structure that support reality. What it insists is to be aware of the fact that someone's existence itself might be denied while you are paying close attention to someone's promise that your rights will be securely protected.

Monument,

plywood stained with ink, gold pigment, 250x245x275cm,

2022

 
The Monument says firmly, yet softly, “My place is here.” Even when you do not raise your voice or be upset, it shows its existence. In order to grasp the speech style of the Monument, I would like to look again into the two objects that gave birth to it. The columns and tetrapods have stable proportions, but they are rarely used alone. They are part of the whole, and what they have in common is that they require different beings. In order to function properly, they have to be shoulder-to-shoulder with their resemblances. This reveals the interdependence of objects that no being can be alone. This is the strategy of how Seo's Monument saves today differently from other monuments. It has to be the one that makes its place, and it looks around while letting others know that it does not need someone's approval. Sometimes, it reaches out to them while showing its inability. The union of western columns and tetrapods is a solidarity of those left alone and a welcoming greeting for a new existence.
 
Reference
Hyunkyung Kim, People, Place, Hospitality, Moonji Publishing, 2015
Hiroki Azuma (translated by Cheon An), Philosophy of the Tourist, Luciole, 2020

Woo Hyunjung(curator of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea)
She studied art and design theory at the Korea National University of Arts and Seoul National University. She curated a media art exhibition at the Art Center Nabi and worked as an art journalist for Space, a monthly publication. She was a senior researcher at the Korean Research Center for Arts, and since 2020, she has been working as a curator at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA). She co-translated Radical Museology (Hyunsil Books, 2016), and at MMCA, she curated Hwang Jai Hyoung: Restoration of Human Dignity (2021), MMCA Lee Kun-hee Collection: LEE JUNG SEOP (2022), and PROJECT HASHTAG 2022 (2022).