Yongkwan Joo

Installation

What is a frontier?

This project began with a reflection on the invisible, artificial lines that can be both insignificant and absolute, divisions made by men for reasons of economics, politics, culture, ideology, etc.

Lines 2020 is an audiovisual installation conceived as a journey towards France’s five borders (with Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Spain) and the border between South Korea and North Korea.
The Korean artist’s perception of frontiers changes constantly as the project proceeds. From the hard, unapproachable border that he experienced during his years of military service, to the fantasy of borders that are easy to cross which he takes form his stays in French border towns, and taking on the hypocrisy that he witnessed as he pursued his research, and the fragility revealed by the Covid-19 epidemic.

The five videos resulting from the artist’s walking around, experiencing, surveying and contemplating border territories play continuously on five hanging screens. A concrete slab representing the Korean is also part of the installation, along with a soundtrack. They offer visitors a journey beyond space and time, intensifying their reflection on frontiers.

Yongkwan Joo

Born in 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. Lives and works between Roubaix and Tourcoing, France.

Production

Credits

Acknowledgments

Valérie Jouve, Pauline Delwaulle, François Bonenfant, L’équipe du Fresnoy – Studio national des Arts Contemporains, Alain Fleischer, Madeleine Van Doren, Daniel Dobbels, Anaïs Caquant, Joëlle Gay, Corine Girieud, Mirela Popa, Mona Young-eun Kim, Nicola Brichta, Federico Clementi, Santiago Bonilla, Ana Elena Tejera, My family.