Dandong Travleog film stills ©Minha Park.
film stills ©Minha Park.
Dandong Travelog
13min, HD, single channel video, color, voice, 2012
To view the North Korean border, which cannot be directly observed from South Korea, Minha Park travels along the Chinese border where North Korea is visible. Dandong Travelog (2012) is filmed over the course of 10 days from the Yalu River to the Tumen River where she encounters numerous propaganda slogans and images at the exhibited border. However, in a place where the border itself functions as a tourist attraction, it was difficult to truly see anything. She was unable to create a work from those scenes. Instead, the film begins with her unexpectedly seeing three North Korean individuals at the border. The duration of the short encounter captured on camera is 1 minute and 52 seconds. Based on the last frame of each footage, she begins to fabricate a fiction about their personal story. At the same time, these detailed speculations paradoxically emphasize the reality of one’s limited gaze as a South Korean and tourist.
13min, HD, single channel video, color, voice, 2012
To view the North Korean border, which cannot be directly observed from South Korea, Minha Park travels along the Chinese border where North Korea is visible. Dandong Travelog (2012) is filmed over the course of 10 days from the Yalu River to the Tumen River where she encounters numerous propaganda slogans and images at the exhibited border. However, in a place where the border itself functions as a tourist attraction, it was difficult to truly see anything. She was unable to create a work from those scenes. Instead, the film begins with her unexpectedly seeing three North Korean individuals at the border. The duration of the short encounter captured on camera is 1 minute and 52 seconds. Based on the last frame of each footage, she begins to fabricate a fiction about their personal story. At the same time, these detailed speculations paradoxically emphasize the reality of one’s limited gaze as a South Korean and tourist.
단동 여행기13분, HD, 싱글채널비디오, 컬러, 목소리, 2012
이 비디오 에세이는 작가가 여행을 하면서 중국과 북한의 국경지대에서 우연히 보게 된 3명의 북한사람들로부터 시작한다. 카메라가 잡아낸 이 짧은 시선의 시간은 총 1분 52초. 각 영상의 마지막 프레임으로부터 그들의 개인적 삶에 대한 이야기를 써 나가지만 동시에 이 자세한 추측들은 남한사람으로서, 관광객으로서의 시선을 넘어설 수 없는 현실만 역설적으로 강조한다.
이 비디오 에세이는 작가가 여행을 하면서 중국과 북한의 국경지대에서 우연히 보게 된 3명의 북한사람들로부터 시작한다. 카메라가 잡아낸 이 짧은 시선의 시간은 총 1분 52초. 각 영상의 마지막 프레임으로부터 그들의 개인적 삶에 대한 이야기를 써 나가지만 동시에 이 자세한 추측들은 남한사람으로서, 관광객으로서의 시선을 넘어설 수 없는 현실만 역설적으로 강조한다.
Screening Event at “JGJJ” at K-Arts University Rooftop, 2016. Photo by Hyeree Ro, Courtesy of the artist.