Often found at theaters and museums, Kwon Mee-yoo has covered a wide range of cultural fields from K-pop and dramas to theater and fine art for over a decade. Now as K-Culture Desk editor, she tries to connect Korean culture with global readers through fresh perspectives.
Superflex 'swings' say 'together, we can'
From left, Kim Sun-jung, artistic director of the Real DMZ Project, Jakob Fenger of Superflex and Zoh Kyung-jin, a landscape design theory professor at Seoul National University, ride Superflex's installation "One Two Three Swing!" Tuesday at Dora Observatory in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, which looks across the Demilitarized Zone into North Korea. Courtesy of Real DMZ Project
By Kwon Mee-yoo
Danish artist trio installs swings at Dora Observatory
By Kwon Mee-yoo
Two swings hang from orange-colored pipes in front of Dora Observatory in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, near the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). It is not easy to ride the swing alone, because the seats are designed for three people at a time.
Danish artist trio Superflex's “One Two Three Swing!,” a playful yet politically subversive sculptural infrastructure installed as part of the Real DMZ Project, sends a key message for the two Koreas ― together, we can pull together a thing that was previously unimaginable.
Superflex is a collective that consists of Jakob Fenger, Rasmus Nielsen and Bjornstjerne Christiansen. Fenger visited Korea to install the bright-colored swings on a spot where riders can have a look at North Korea.
“Finally we are here,” Fenger said during a press conference at the observatory, Tuesday. “We had to have the swing set up in a very short time, but it is a magic moment for us.
“As a collective, we created the name Superflex and the color orange. When we started, we were fascinated by the power of a group. And we found that the most efficient way to work as a collective in a capitalistic society is in the form of a company.
“We are interested in what happens in a society such as the economy and copyright. We define our works as tools for action or another use. It is more than just an object you look at, but it changes your life and situation.”
The DMZ is one of the places where the artist trio wanted to install the swings, which debuted at Tate Modern's Turbine Hall in 2017. The swings have traveled to the Copenhagen Contemporary, the Bundeskunsthalle Bonn and the von Bartha gallery in Basel, before heading to the only country remaining divided by the Cold War. This is the first time the swing has been installed in Asia.
“Hyundai commissioned us for the Turbine Hall, which is a good spot to show what you are thinking,” Fenger said. “We were interested in how to make the public space active and interact with the spaces around. It was a difficult space to work, with high ceilings and a bridge in the middle. We try to use culture to challenge the situation we face and it was important for us to take the project outside the building.”
The key to this installation is to ride the swing together. “This swing, which is like a human pendulum, is activated by three people. Three is the number of our collective as well as the minimum for a group,” Fenger said. “Physically when you move together, you can change things and situations you never dreamed of.”
Danish artist trio Superflex's "One Two Three Swing!" is installed at Dora Observatory in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, which looks across the Demilitarized Zone and North Korea. Courtesy of Real DMZ Project
The collective's color orange was noticeably used in the pipes of “One Two Three Swing!” Fenger referred to the color as the fourth member of the collective.
“The color came from us,” the artist said. “It is related to working people and the robes of Buddhist monks. It is not a very political color, but flexible. This bright color stands out and is not found commonly around. It is also the color of fire, which has significance in the evolution and development of humankind.”
The members of Superflex, who first visited Korea to take part in the Gwangju Biennial in 2002, have shown interest in the Korean Peninsula for years.
Kim Sun-jung, artistic director of the Real DMZ Project and president of the Gwangju Biennale Foundation, said she has been in talks with Superflex since 2014.
“They first suggested making a vending machine of North Korean cigarettes in the South, inspired by the 2000 Park Chan-wook film Joint Security Area, in which North and South Korean soldiers exchange cigarettes, but it fell through,” Kim said.
“Then they suggested installing the swing in the DMZ and the project was arranged as part of the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Denmark and South Korea.”
The trio visited North Korea in 2013 to exchange information about a biogas energy system they have developed.
“This is a very childish project, imagining a kind of playground with swings and slides,” Fenger said. “However, this childishness is very sincere for me. It was the dream of this project to be installed at this super-symbolic place. The orange pipe goes into earth here, but it might pop up somewhere up there in the North.”