Hyewon Kwon

Hyewon Kwon has researched specific events or spaces with special memories and created narrations there of through these images. Kwon thinks of videos as a site of building the structure of narratives and creates a spatial and figurative narrative structure through the elements found during the research processes. After acquiring a masters’ degree at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London majoring in fine art–media, Kwon was selected as the Bloomberg New Contemporary (U.K.) artist in 2011. Kwon has also participated in the Goyang Residency at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (2017) and the Nanji Residency at Seoul Museum of Art (2016). Her recent exhibitions include Common Front, Affectively (Nam June Paik Art Center, Yongin, 2018), The Arrival of New Women (National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Deoksugung, Seoul, 2018). Her work is included in the collections such as the Museum of Contemporary Art Busan and he Art Bank at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. She won the grand prize of the 19th Song Eun Art Award.

Curator Gimo Yi. That was a simple and plain space located between the ACC Creation and ACC Theater at the Asia Culture Center. It was one of the more remote entrances with a passage to descend into the major buildings with a restroom. Compared to the ACC Plaza or other impressive buildings, it was simply a passage or entrance with little significant impression; however, I was captivated by it not being not special. It could serve as a starting point to come up with a particular thing.
The space for a screen was an exterior wall of ACC Creation and a long sloping floor for the fire lane under it. A certain image is expected to flow along the long road on which 18 projectors are connected. I walked on the screen at a ratio of 25.875:1, an impressive screen rate. Thinking of a poetic title, “Sensory Garden: Night Falls, Light Fulls,” I looked around the landscaping which had impressed me whenever I visited this place. Instead of a few trees and plants, I was once again able to look at an island of exuberant plants as if part of the forest were directly transferred. The group of bamboo trees was gently swaying in the breeze on the rooftop of ACC Theater.
During autumn, a few years ago, I went on a field trip to
Gyeongbokgung Palace with Jonghyun Choi, an urban historian. We exchanged various conversations, but among them, the concept of “borrowing landscapes” that I heard while looking at Bugaksan Mountain, which was reflected on the pond’s surface around the Gyeonghoeru Pavilion, has remained as an exciting memory for a long time. This concept has stemmed from Yuanye (The Garden Treatise), a book written by Ji Cheng of the late Ming dynasty in 1634, and many other books. It is the idea of borrowing the landscape: the concept of the natural landscape that allows us to look at and think of the landscape, which is located outside, inside of the wall, instead of directly bringing the landscape into the house. Remembering the summit of Bugaksan, which was ruffled by the wind while silently reflected on the surface of the pond, I came up with an idea of “borrowing a certain landscape” to the walls of the building and to the road onto which the light of the projector is projected. In my opinion, looking at the distant scenes that are reflected on the surface of the pond is highly similar to creating videos. Capturing the distant images by the camera and unfolding them in front of the viewers can be considered a type of “borrowing landscapes.”
While researching Young Sun Jung, a landscaping designer at the ACC, I read her interview stating, “Based on the idea that landscapes shall not be artificially made, I do not like the word ‘landscaping.’” She identified herself as “a person who connects,” implying that creating a garden is a work to connect the earth, humans, nature, and the future. Connecting various existences with space and time is analogous to “borrowing the landscape,” connecting the distant scenes with the current point.
I thought of it not only as a screen space but also an exhibition space itself as a space for my work. The inside of the exhibition space consists of the wooden deck where crape myrtle trees offer shades, the bamboo forest over the distant ACC Theater, and a huge circular tower covered with vines. It occurred to me that it would be great to borrow the “water scene,” which is lacking in this landscape. It would be the landscape that fits an extensive screen longer than 100 meters.
I set out conducting research on the Gwangjucheon Stream that crosses over the city of Gwangju. By looking up and reading the many pieces of literature as to Gwangjucheon, I began to walk along the 24.4 kilometers stream. The starting point is samgol, meaning a village with a well, located 800 meters below Jangbuljae Hill of Mudeungsan Mountain, and the stream leads to the junction of Yeongsangang River. It was interesting that Mudeungsan
can be connected to the scene I intended to borrow. While walking along with the flow of Gwangjucheon, the stream itself seemed like a road movie. From its source in the valley of Mudeungsan, various scenes unfold following the basin, the suburban area, the stores covering the stream, the airport, and the junction of Yeongsangang within the air control zone, and I was able to meet many different people, birds, and insects while walking.
The image of the stream I recorded by walking reminds me of the type of film strip shown in the image editing process, where various moments are captured in one connected space. I intend that the process of creating this video work could also connect the multiple existences, times, and space and become the advent of garden-making. This is a starting point of How to Borrow a Landscape.