Sleepless Namdo

Artists: Kang Moonseok, Kang Junghyo, Kang Taebong, Koh Gilchoun, Kwon Yoonduck, BEOM JUN(KIM), Kim Soobeom, Kim Younghwa, Kim Younghoon, Kim Hyunjoo, Ryu Biho, Park Kyunghoon, Park Soyoun, Park Younggyun, Bae Inseok, Sung Changhak, Son Jeungeun, Yang Donggyu, Yang Mikyeong, Yeo Sanghee, Oh Seokhoon, Oh Yunseon, Oak Jungho, Lee Myungbok, Lee Seungmin, Lee Jaeuk, Lim kyungsup, Chon Seungil, Jung Seokhee, Jung Yongsung, Han Hangseon, Hong Jinsook, Hong Jinwon
Curators: You Jung Jang, Jaeyoung Kang, Jihyun Kang, Minji Lee, Sun Mi Lee, Won Sun Seoung, Ji Yoon Yang
 

To mark the 70th anniversary of the Jeju April 3 uprising, six arts organizations and galleries in Seoul are commemorating the uprising and subsequent atrocities that took place on Jeju Island in 1948. The collaborative project Sleepless Namdo brings together 33 artists and seven curators in exhibitions that will occur concomitantly with the Jeju April 3 Art Festival.

Both the project and the festival will highlight the events surrounding April 3, 1948, the day that marks the official beginning of the revolts and brutal suppression of protesters on Jeju Island. These protests were sparked by anxieties around what was to be the first general election in the southern half of Korea following the country’s independence from Japan, as many feared the elections would lead to a permanent division of the Korean peninsula. People on the mainland as well as on Jeju wanted a unified Korea and opposed the upcoming election on May 10, 1948.

Unrest and protest spread throughout 1947 and 1948, and by the end of 1949, continued protests, guerilla insurrection, and brutal suppression led to an estimated 30,000 people losing their lives (10 per cent of the island’s population at the time) and more than a hundred villages being burnt to the ground. It was the largest massacre in contemporary Korean history, second only to the Korean War, yet for decades the facts of the Jeju uprising were censored or ignored. More recently various campaigns have demanded official apologies from the United States and South Korean governments, and acknowledgement of their involvement in the suppressions.

SPACE 41 presents Forgotten Word, showcasing works by artists who have participated in the Jeju April 3 Art Festival, breaking the silence of the victims and sufferers, and bringing to light the facts surrounding the uprising that remain in the dark.

At Alternative Space Loop, seminars will follow on from the exhibition 1948, 27719, 1457, 14028, 2018. Reframing the Jeju uprising as a resistance against oppression and injustice, these events reestablish the critical will of the participants, who have been written out or ignored by the extreme right and by anti-communists for 70 years.

Seongbuk Young Art Space and Seongbuk Art Pumping Station will present The Ghosts in Neobeunsungi. Neobeunsungi is a historical site of the Jeju April 3 uprising: more than 300 people lost their lives here on January 17, 1949. The Korean superstition that the living cannot rest in the aftermath of a killing until justice for the victim has been attained is the thread running through this exhibition, as it gives voice to the restless souls adrift on Jeju Island, haunting those on and beyond the island.

The LEE HAN YEOL Memorial Museum presents Winds of Sorrow, an exhibition focusing on the pain and suffering brought about by the abuse of state power. A healing shamanistc ritual will be held as part of the exhibition.

d/p draws attention to the long suppression from memory of the Jeju April 3 uprising through Standing Boundary, an exhibition that aims to broaden the boundaries of the Jeju uprising well beyond the island’s physical and geographical limits.

Lectures: Revolutionary Notes, Metanoia
Gyuhang Kim, Columnist
Thursdays, April 12, 19, 26, and May 3, 7pm
at Alternative Space Loop, 20 Wausan-ro 29 Na-gil Mapo-gu Seoul

Credit
Presented by the Memorial Committee for the 70th Anniversary of the Jeju April 3 Uprising and Massacre
Organized by the Memorial Committee for the 70th Anniversary of the Jeju April 3 Uprising and Massacre, Jeju Museum of Art