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Title
–Report about Boan Hotel Project |
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The Secret Hotel Project is a
site-specific project composed of a variety of works. In this project, I was concerned with the
exhibition of the space as subject and site simultaneously, where the subject
of the work and the place of exhibition are essentially the same. To maintain a natural feeling and to
assemble the maximum of objects and ideas, I used the shadow as the primary
imagery representing the past and present existence of the space. Each video clip is only several
seconds long played in an indefinite loop. These video clips were projected on
walls, doors or windows, and presented alongside objects found in the space. The subject of this project is the Bo-an
Hotel in Seoul. The word Bo-an means secret. The Bo-an hotel is an old style,
Korean hotel, recently abandoned.
Within its empty rooms, I imagined the people that had once stayed
there: lovers, old men, old
women, young soldiers, children, poets and singers. The address of this hotel is 2-1
Tongi-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul. In
the immediate surrounding area are the presidential palace and the ancient
royal palace, Gyeongbok-gung.
During the Choson dynasty, the royal family natal hospital was
situated at the site of the hotel, along side the private palace of King
Yongjo (Choson Dynasty). During
colonialization, this private palace later served as headquarters of the
Japanese colonial company in the early 1900¡¯s. Post Korean War, the same site was used
to house provincial laborers, come to work at the presidential palace. Most recently, the famous Korean poet,
Seo Jungju, resided there during the Dictatorship of Mr. Jeong-hee Park. In 2005, Gallery Kunstdoc received
authorization to use the site of the hotel, the adjoining traditional Korean
house and Japanese-style house, for 1 year, until their planned demolition in
June 2007. In a sense, this hotel has received a
death sentence, and so I am listening to and recording the last words of the
hotel: I collect abandoned objects and stories of its past inhabitants. I am now preparing 15 video performances,
one for each of the rooms in the hotel.
The spectators will be able to see these installations and video performances
through a small window in each of the rooms¡¯ doors. |
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