2012 Community Art Project

Seoul Art Space_Geumcheon defines 'community art' as something more than personal artistic achievement. It should embrace activities, which in effect contribute to the infrastructure of social culture, using localism as a material as a 'visual material', or research and archiving. However, this does not necessarily presuppose joint work with residents. Between 2009 and 2012 Community Art Project has carried out a total of 14 projects.

In our inaugural year of 2009, we have placed our emphasis on identifying the local nature of Seoul Art Space_Geumcheon in the long run rather than on collaborations with local residents or the realization of public ideals. In 2010 we divided our agenda to the three branches of resident participatory programs, educational programs and archiving, supported for local residents, and offered administrative consulting services.

In 2011 we expanded the scope of our target beneficiaries from artists in residence to outside artists as well and clearly defined the direction of Seoul Art Space_Geumcheon's community art agenda in how our artists mutually reach out to the local community, with examples including Jung Yeon-doo's <Nam-seoul Rainbow>, Heo Tae-won's <Garden of Geumcheon>, etc.

Our community art project of 2012, lead by Im Heung-soon who has inquired into the history of the Guro, Geumcheon areas in which Seoul Art Space_Geumcheon is located during his long-term residency of two years, demonstrated growth into allowing local residents to go from being the inspiration for, direct or indirect subject matter of, and in supporting roles in artists' work to becoming artists in their own right who have turned their own ideas into a movie.

This project, which had assumed the form of presentations for each piece of art, was presented as part of an exhibition for the ‘Urban Issues Research Project’ since 2012, and a joint ‘Community and Research Project’ is in plans to be carried out in 2013.

■Visit to a art-house_Park Nung-saeng & In Jin-mi

- Period: 2012.05 ~ 2012.11

- Location: Around Geumcheon –gu area

- Workforce: 7 people (Artist Park Neung Saeng/In Jin Mi, Music Kang Min Seok, Assistants Bae Ji Yeop, Moon Seong Yun ets.)

- Participant: Total 1,362 people (participants 1,012 people, Spectators 350 people

- Artist’s note:

They were our favorite places to eat. The place where artists had their meals while in residence Korean Restaurant ('Sarangchae'), the local taste of soondae soup (Silbigip) and late-night dinner for nighttime hunger (Seven Princesses Covered Wagon) where we soothed our hunger at night... the restaurant owners whose only annual holiday is for a single day on Lunar New Year's Day, and who work hard in their lots in Geumcheon-gu where they have been making the same dishes with fresh ingredients for some twenty years. The owners who have always treated us warmly despite how their consistently repetitive daily routines lack the opening for them to seek interior redecoration or recreation.

While stuffing my mouth full of food I acquired curiosity regarding the stories of their lives, and I had the urge to infuse the restaurants in which they spend most of their days with some life. However, when I actually pointed a camera at them and suggested I would change their interior decorations, they who were weary from their busy routines at first waved their hands no. My work had begun after strenuous pursuit, and the owners smiled warmly while looking at the paint job, wallpapering and menu sign that an artist had designed, and displayed childlike joy, telling me they were able to take a day off thanks to me. The image of them becoming shy at seeing themselves on film but at the same time subtly displaying their pride to their families...

I am now friends with them. Warm friends whose families I ask about and who ask about mine, whose healths I worry for and who worry for mine, and who even serve me extra servings of delicious food.

- Works

■2012 Geumcheon Blues_Im Heung-soon & Geumcheon Mrs.

- Period: 2012.07 ~ 2012.11

- Location: Geumcheon Art Space

- Workforce: About 27 people (Artist Im Heung-soon, Producer Kim Min Kyeong, Assistant Director Jang hyeon Nam/Lee Jung Eun, Artists Mun Saetbyeol/Seo Igyeom ets.)

- Participant: Total 403 people (participants 53 people, Spectators 350 people

- Artist’s note:

<Geumcheon Blues> is in the same line of succession with ‘OO Talkative Project’, <Private Museum>, which Im Heung-soon had created with housekeepers in Geumcheon-gu during his stay in residence (2010-2012), <Private Museum 2>, done with housekeepers in the city of Yongin, and <Private Museum 3>, in which the artist had interviewed female workers of the former Guro Industrial Complex.

This project consisted of producing a movie which reinterpreted and reconciled the past (Guro Industrial Complex, migration, women, the lives of the working class) from the present's perspective with the theme of Geumcheon-gu, women and labor; and eight of the nineteen housekeepers who had participated in the eight-week education program ‘OO Talkative Project’, known as “Geumcheon Mrs.," and new member housekeepers had participated.

<Geumcheon Blues> was ultimately produced as an omnibus movie of the four parts of <Bridle>, <Sewing Machine Kim>, <Time Bus> and <Piano>, and the project was completed with a photography and installation exhibition and a film screening. For Lim it was personally another profound movie project and for "Geumcheon Mrs." it was of a wish to help their group continue. <Geumcheon Blues> was undertaken jointly with "Geumcheon Mrs." and people in various fields including Yoon Hye-ryun, Kim-shin Hyun-kyung, Kim So-hyun, Kim Min-kyung, Lee Kyung-wha, Lee Eun-seon, Chang Hyun-nam, Eon Cheo-ri, Lee Yong-hoon, Seo I-kyum, Moon Set-byeol, Kang Min-seok, Paik Kyung-min and Shin Eun-hee, et al.

- Works: