Wednesday 3 March 2010

Okin OPEN SITE


Opening_ 7 March 2010 2pm-7pm
Location_ Okin Apartments
Artists_ Hwayong Kim, Jooyoung Lee, Eunji Cho, Shiu Jin, Joungmin Yi, Yuk King Tan

Okin OPEN SITE Realized by a group of artists interested in the aesthetic possibilities of play and commentary, Okin OPEN SITE, is a series of installations and interventions about the ongoing deconstruction and ramifications of the precarious Okin Apartments.Though the area is a dangerous construction site, there are still a handful of residents living in the apartments as the demolition occurs. In this literal and conceptual grey zone, ideas about illegality, home, deconstruction and uncertainty form the basis of Okin OPEN SITE. This one-day art event is an invitation to view the last remaining blocks of the well known apartment complex before its complete deconstruction. Though it has a new name, Eco Park, the future of the Okin area is not yet known. In dispute over the demolition of the large scale housing site, is one of the last remaining residents, artist Hwayong Kim. The Okin Apartment complex, built in the early seventies, is nestled under the beautiful Mount Inwang and stream; the site was famously painted by a highly characteristic brush and ink painter in 18th century artist Gyeomjae Jeongseon.The artists involved in Okin OPEN SITE – Eunji Cho, Shiu Jin, Hwayoung Kim, Jooyoung Lee, Yuk King Tan, Joungmin Yi – create subtle interventions inside deserted and occupied apartments. The installations reveal different attitudes and facets of the Okin situation, and are made in quick consideration that the work may need to change as rapidly as the buildings disappear. For information about Okin OPEN SITE Sunday 2pm, March 7th, please refer to the Okin Apartment Project blog(okinapt.blogspot.com). Also, please note that last minute changes to the schedule or artwork may occur at anytime, due to ongoing demolition restrictions or weather constraints. ■


_ Artist Statement

Shiu Jin, Joungmin Yi: Bowling for Okin
Two bowling balls, discarded on the fifth floor of a demolished building in Okin Apartments, remind us of the Michael Moore film 'Bowling for Columbine'. Moore’s title for his documentary is a satirical dig at the misleading politics that accused entertainment like heavy metal music, violent movies and video games as the fundamental cause of the Columbine High School Massacre.
It's not easy to find the definite development process of the Okin Apartments. The residential blocks, housing a large community, were built in 1971 around the skirts of Mount Inwang. Forced demolition by developers and urban planners started in mid 2009 and the very different compensations given to each resident are unknown. No one also knows the full future plans of the Okin site now called' Eco Park'. Indeed, no one knows what makes them move, rather like the strike of bowling
pins hit by a suddenly rolling ball.

Yuk King Tan, Jooyoung Lee: Ghost Bar
The Ghost Bar ironically links the supernatural elements of Buddhist mysticism, framed by the symbolism of the mountain and the spirits of the past, with the psychological states of disavowal: the phases of intoxication, hallucination, stupor and transformation that occurs from either hard liquor or a more pervasive politically sanctioned obliteration of memory. The Ghost Bar will be a free bar, offering snacks and winter’s ‘last shot’.Built in an exposed window of an apartment in Okin, the functioning bar’s counter-top teeters over the edge of the building, inviting traffic to stop and linger in the dramatic stetting of a half destroyed home under a beautiful mountain landscape. Any drinking establishment is a repository of secrets and unfulfilled dreams. The watering hole, made from collected detritus and material, refers to the past life and memory of Okin’s former occupants and the political act of the area’s destruction.

Eunji Cho: One fine day I might know my heart was broken
People are invited to Okin Apartments to look inside fifteen places that the artist has chosen.

Hwayong Kim: Welcome to my home
The sweet romance started with a space for the first time in my life. It was an old, but sun filled place, a ground floor and not a damp and dark basement. When the torrid romance reached its climax, I was unilaterally sentenced to a heartbreaking separation.
The Okin Apartment project is my request for consolation in order to ease my mind. I show the last moments of my space in Okin, as well as the past two years of my prepared farewell to Okin.

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