Commissioned by Arts Council Korea
at RolePlay, ARKO Art Center, Art Council of Korea, Seoul, Korea, 2 JUL - 26 AUG, 2007
at Channel 1, Gallery Hyundai, Seoul, Korea, 2 - 21 OCT, 2007
at Turkey Digital Film Festival RESFEST 2008, Istanbul, Turkey, 2008
at Coffee with Sugar The Tea House, Sofia, Bulgaria, 22 MAR - 21 APR, 2008
at Coffee with Sugar, Akbank Art and Culture Center, Istanbul, Turkey, 29 MAR - 28 APR, 2008
In this project, subway is not only recognized as a vehicle of transportation that moves from one place to another and connects one space to another space, but also as a stage where deviant happenings take place. For instance, a man bows politely and keeps apologizing. Another person is on the phone, describing and demonstrating yoga postures to a friend. An American sings the Star-Spangled Banner with tears. These unusual and nonsensical happenings are staged in a subway and the reactions of passengers are observed.
Most passengers try not to show any emotions and try to ignore the happenings so that they can stay within the social norms. In filming their reactions, no camera work is involved such as close-up and zoom-in/out that are often employed in other video projects. Instead, the camera is placed in a fixed position. In other projects, close-up is often used to control people’s attention and present detailed psychological descriptions. However, in this project, there is no such close-up or long-take camera work. Therefore, the camera documents the scene without addition or subtraction. This approach goes well with the lack of drama among the passengers who seem to be indifferent to all the deviant behaviors in the subway.
Support
Arts Council Korea