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Open Theatre  2004.9.17 - 10.20

Open Theatre - Upgrading  Scaffolding, gauze fabric, Anguk Post Office, Seoul, Korea, 2004


 
Open Theatre - Upgrading                                                                                                          Stamp     
        
I will Commit Crime For Ev..          
       

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Open Theatre was a public art project curated by the artist. It took place at the public sites of two official institutions, a post office and a police station, in the Samchung-dong area, Seoul. The project diffused the boundary between public/private, art/everyday life, the virtual/the actual, and created a space for the re-evaluation of the interstices existing in the society.

Open Theatre - Upgrading
A mock construction raised one more storey on top of a post office building located in Anguk-dong, the centre of Seoul. This installation was exposed to the public for approximately one month. In Korea, people often use English term, ‘upgrade’ to express their expectation of better quality in something or a certain circumstances. The piece identified the concept of an ‘upgrade’ of an official institution with an act of raising a further storey. It humorously represented the gap between hollow promises of the state and the expectations of its citizens by creating a simulacra of ‘progress’ on top of the post office building.

Stamp
Special edition stamps made in collaboration with A.K Post Office

I will Commit Crime For Ever and a Day
The artist delivered stolen flowerpots to a Police Station during the exhibition period.
The delivery of flowerpots gradually increased until they ‘decorated’ the front wall of the police station.
The police station was transformed into a 24-hour gallery, in which the viewer was invited to walk around the inside of the police station. One policeman was asked to guide the viewer around police station, explaining the project. The work, in which the Police Station was a willing institutional participant, questioned the boundary between artwork and misdemeanor. The project also questioned the role of art, art objects and their relation to social power.

I will Commit Crime For Ever and a Day
Flower drawing has been installed inside police station.
Embroidered flower images drawn directly from stolen flowers.



Copyright © 2009 Young In Hong