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Urban landscapes are always changing. As we observe the slowly but rapidly changing landscapes, we experience the erasure of the memories rooted in the city we are connected to. The memories we once had in that city are being replaced by new apartments and buildings. The bittersweet feeling that arises when we observe disappearing places might stem from the sense that our past selves, who once lived there, are also vanishing along with them. Does that mean that we hope that the city will remain unchanged forever? That’s probably not the case. We find ourselves caught in a dilemma between the nostalgia for vanishing landscapes and the desire to live in more pleasant and better places.

Life being forced out of the city

While the memories of the city may be fading for some, there are also those for whom it becomes their present reality. They are the people whose lives are being completely uprooted and erased by redevelopment. We experience and lament the erasure of personal memories, collective memories, and even life itself under the power of capitalism.

The documentary film “Cats' Apartment” (directed by Jeong Jae-eun) allows us to reflect on the lives of various beings who are pushed aside by the logic of capitalism. The documentary depicts the situation of cats that have been living in Seoul's Dunchon Public Apartments for a long time, as they are forcefully displaced due to redevelopment, and captures their migration project. Through this, it raises the question of how the disappearance of a place that has been formed for a long time in the city affects the urban ecosystem and community. The story of the cats overlaps with the stories of people who are involuntarily displaced due to redevelopment.

Vanishing city - Documenting through gestures

It is intriguing that the choreographer and director of dance film¹⁾, Song Joo-won, uses her own body to document the disappearing places within the urban landscape. She transfers the space of the dance, where it takes place on a “stage,” to the actual places where life unfolds, the “city.” The places she focuses on include Bukchon Traditional Cultural Center, Sewoon Plaza, Nakwon Plaza, Ogin-dong, Bokwang-dong, Cheongpa-dong, and Janghanpyeong, all of which are redevelopment areas or places that have undergone gentrification with their land purposes changed.

Since 2014, the ongoing series “Pung Jeong. Gak” started as site-specific performances and has now evolved into dance films. As the title “Pung Jeong. Gak” suggests, which means “carving the meaning of wind,” it summons the time and stories embedded in the evolving urban landscape.

What is interesting is that the initial recording of the accumulated time and sense of place within the urban landscape through dance choreography has evolved and been interpreted in various forms such as site-specific performances, documentary films, and visual arts (performance and video works). It explores the boundaries and pushing the limits by traversing between the genres of performing arts, visual arts, and film.

In documentary, “Pung Jeong. Gak (風精.刻) Recital in the Alley,” professional and non-professional dancers come together to dance and explore the alleyways of Ogin-dong in Seoul. Throughout the preliminary research phase, the process involves absorbing ample anecdotes about the location, leisurely wandering around while being immersed in its atmosphere, and then expressing this through gestures. By breathing and experiencing it firsthand in that place, the performers engage in a dialogue with the questions that arise from encountering the past's accumulated time.

<Pung Jeong. Gak (風精.刻) Recital in the Alley>, 17 min. 52 sec, Ogin-dong in Seoul, 2017.

“Pung Jeong. Gak (風精.刻) a Town with a Blue Hill” also features a place that embodies a unique sense of place and history, along with the changes and decline of the city. During the Japanese colonial era, numerous houses with Japanese architectural styles were constructed. Following the Korean War, urban-style hanok architecture emerged, succeeded by Western-style houses in the 1970s, and later on, multi-unit and row houses were built in the years that followed. As a result, this location encapsulates layered lives that have developed and evolved over time. Now, in this area that has become a redevelopment site, they discover traces of life and record them through bodily gestures.

<Pung Jeong. Gak (風精.刻) a Town with a Blue Hill>, dance film, 15 min. 46 sec., Cheongpa-dong in Seoul, 2018.

Disappearing life - Remembering

Director Song Joo-won's another work, “I Am a Lion,” follows the life of an individual sacrificed to the desires and violence of the city, set in Taepyeong-dong, Seongnam. Taepyeong-dong is where people who were forcibly relocated to Seongnam (then Gwangju) as part of Seoul's urban policy in the 1960s used to live.

While the previous “Pung Jeong.Gak” series focused on the narratives inherent in that location, “I Am a Lion” instead focuses on the personal narrative of an individual who lived in Taepyeong-dong in the past. The character named Hanbit wanders through this neighborhood, which was the space of their childhood, with ghostly gestures. It seems to symbolize the gestures of those whose lives have been erased, as if they have become nonexistent.

I Am a Lion Source: https://vimeo.com/372791338

Recontextualized body language

The recent work “hwi-i-ing” can be interpreted as another form of experimental exploration that expands the layers of choreography. The background of this work is set in Bogwang/Hannam-dong, with the boundary of the neighborhood serving as the flowing wind and wish that is “hwi-i-ing.” In the past, the real estate prices in these two neighborhoods were similar, but currently, there is a significant gap, leading to hidden traces of prayers scattered throughout.

The piece is sequentially and parallelly screened on an online platform created by nine independent channels. Different artists collaborated to create three of these channels. Each participant, including dancers, seeks traces and signals of Bogwang-dong as a place, engaging in conversations and becoming the choreography through their individual interpretations.

One unique aspect of “hwi-i-ing” is that the order and overlapping of the videos are determined by the choice of the audience, adding an interactive element to the experience. While in the past, viewers took a passive stance in observing the choreography created by the choreographer, now, with the element of audience intervention, spectators are empowered to engage with the choreography, resulting in different outcomes for each viewer. It is the recontextualization of a narrative composed of the choreographer's body language.

hwi-i-ing Source: http://hwi-i-ing.com

His work asks us: Is it okay for the places that contain our lives and memories to disappear like this? The disappearance of a city also implies the loss of the stories that are embedded between the places, our past, and the accumulated time within them.

Cities are constantly changing, and within them, these changes are captured and preserved through visual arts, sound art, film, performances, and literature, all driven by a sensitive perception. Since each individual's memories are substituted in their own unique ways, their incompleteness may actually give them vitality.