3hr Agency “Concretulation”

Seoul (세운상가 가열327호 개방회로), August 5 – August 19, 2016, www.3hragency.com, opencircuit.co.kr

Sewoon Sangga, a large market complex near Jogno 3-ga in the center of Seoul, was quiet and half deserted on the Saturday afternoon when I was finding my way through the maze of little shops and warehouses selling mostly electronic goods. It was very, very hot. Somewhere in there where one would not expect it was a little room, the size of one shop unit. The show window was covered with a black plastic film. A small opening was cut out with the pattern of palm trees. A parasol placed outside of the door with an invitation and poster on a little desk, as well as a pictogram on an a-shaped announcement board placed in front of the door where suggesting that this was the place. The blacked out window with the palm tree motive was reminiscent of some shady “massage” parlor or “karaoke” room, but the location in between shops selling cables made it appear out of place.

I opened the door, the dark room was lit with fluorescent blue light often used in night clubs. A slow and mellow instrumental country beach music was in the air. In the middle of the room was an about half meter deep hole surrounded by black traffic cones. At the bottom the hole was a pile of books. And there was a person. A young female, dressed in a uniform reminiscent of a security guard with her face covered by a breathing mask was slowly parading along the perimeter of the room, around the hole in the middle. Sometimes she stopped and inspected the hole, as if it was some crime scene, without talking. After a while, she reached down into the hole, lifted one of the books and handed it to me.

It took me some time to figure out what this meant, even though the hints were present, the “holiday” like atmosphere, which could be interpreted as related to the hot summer season and the slowness of the businesses in the surrounding area. At the same time, it also referred to the idea of a temporary escape, a kind of 1 hour holiday, one seeks when visiting a massage or karaoke parlor. Inside of the space, the interpretation of the scene hovered between one of symbolic authority – the security guard marching very formally back and forth – and one of a crime scene – where equally the authority appears, but now in a functional role, inspecting and investigating, looked up to by the onlookers in hope for a resolution to the fickle motions of fate. The connection between the two disparate worlds of leisure and authority were to be linked together by the idea of visiting/touring a site of interest. A tourist site or illicit entertainment business, a site representing official authority and a crime scene all share the power of attracting our attention as places where our fears and desires are being played out. This is also what makes them appear side by side within news reports and on-line feeds: Images of best holiday destinations, next to news about political drama, next to detailed descriptions of most recent crime scenes. All of those attract our attention. Here merged into one, it all appeared very strange, but it did make sense without being prescriptive in directing one’s thinking too much.

So far I talked around the book which was piled up in the pit at the center of the installation setup, a numbered edition souvenir the visitor could take away. Unfortunately I could not understand a word of it except for the three Chinese characters used in the title (三日誌 – three days record/magazine). It had a hardcover and was rather beautifully designed. It contained mostly text, interspersed with a number of black and white images. I hope one day I can figure out its contents.

Despite the inaccessibility of the book (which probably provided additional clues or maybe a further layer of meaning to the installation-performance I just described), this visit was one of the art-highlights of the recent months for me. It was the strange unexpectedness, the precarious transience and the freshness that made it stand out, as well as the concept that seemed to have been thought through thoroughly. The same can be said about the design layers, from the invitation, poster to the installation, book and website, all bound together by the common element of the hole in the middle of the exhibition space, stressing the abstract site at the center of our attention (i.e. in our mind) and the way it stays constant despite the very different appearances and connotations it may take.