Open Theatre

2004

A mock construction using scaffolding is built atop the Post Office building located in Anguk-dong, central Seoul. The work references the English term ‘upgrade’, often used in Korea to express people’s expectation of improved quality. The work identifies the concept of an ‘upgrade’ of an official institution with an act of raising a further storey. Humorously representing 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. The project diffuses the boundary between public/private, art/everyday life, the virtual/the actual, and creates a space for the re-evaluation of the interstices existing in the society.

Photo: O Yeol Kwon