top of page
 
38curtain

Solo Exhibition / 2011 / Youkobo Art Space, Tokyo, Japan

I thought I wanted to express inside the borderline in a different way from my installations in Korea.
The borderline on the map was just a line, but the actual borderline was a space. No matter how thin the borderline may be, in reality it is a space where various phenomena take place and stories exist. However, we look at this world as if we were looking at a map. From this perspective, the line is overlooked as a symbol in society, and we do not see inside the line. We can not see inside the lines, that is, the “world in between. However, I have seen this “world in between” throughout the lives of my parents and grandparents. When I first visited the observatory where I could see the Korean DMZ (North-South Military Demarcation Line), I looked through binoculars at the vast expanse of nature. As I looked at this quiet view, I was reminded of my family. Border lines symbolize national, organizational, and ethnic frameworks. But inside them lies a world that is independent of them. I was remembering my loved ones who live in that “world in between. While we have sometimes been seen as a symbol of relations between nations and their politics, we have always wanted to be free from them. This is not my experience alone.
I made this installation inspired by the view I saw that day.

An installation transformed through the movement of a curtain.
The lines on the two-dimensional map were spread out like a curtain and covered the space of the three-dimensional reality. In this work, the green boundary slowly covers the space and at the end the part representing the nation reverses like a line. I placed five 'The secret garden' books in the space covered by the green curtain. Sandwiched between the books is a diary of my travels along the Korean military border. I remenberd of the last line from the main character in The Secret Garden.
Her friend asked her, “What will happen to the secret garden open to everyone? Will it no longer be a secret garden?” And she replied, 'No, the world will become a secret garden.

copyright © Sumi Kanazawa All Rights Reserved.

bottom of page