[Cityscapes] 'Fire Flower' grows at Yongsan Disaster site

The "Fire Flower" during creation, in front of Hyosung Harrington Place next to Sinyongsan Station as seen July 14, 2020, stands about five meters from the former site of Namildang, where a forced eviction resulted in a fire that killed five evictees and a riot police officer on Jan. 20, 2009. / Courtesy of Ron Bandun

By Ron Bandun

If you're in the Sinyongsan area, just east of Yongsan Station, you might notice a red sculpture that wasn't there a year ago. It looks sort of like a tulip, or a red flame, standing in front of the recently opened Hyosung Harrington Place building. A plaque identifies it as the "Fire Flower" by Han Jin-su, and it seems to be an accidental memorial to a tragic fire that took place almost exactly on the spot.

No more than five meters away from the installation is the site of a deadly urban renewal battle on the morning of Jan. 20, 2009. If you were in Korea back then, you may remember the images of fire burning early in the morning on top of a small commercial building called Namildang, with a cargo container crammed with police swaying at the end of a portable crane like a cat toy over the fire. Now called the Yongsan Disaster, the fiery urban redevelopment battle claimed the lives of five evictees and one anti-terrorist riot police officer.

At the time, the protesters had been labeled as terrorists and held responsible for the fire that resulted in the deaths, but in hindsight it's clear no lives would have been lost if the police hadn't attempted their daring rooftop raid. The jailed evictees had their records cleared by presidential pardon by President Moon Jae-in.

After the Yongsan Disaster happened, I visited the site a few times. Sometimes the evictees held memorials for their fallen friends, and the police were always around in strong force, sometimes filling Hangang-daero with hundreds of riot police buses, all for just a dozen elderly protesters.

On Jan. 20, 2010, the one-year anniversary, Namildang still stood, a burned-out carcass. I photographed a red banner hanging from a nearby street pole, promoting Seoul as the World Design Capital 2010, with the slogan "Design for All."

A banner for Seoul as World Design Capital 2010 boasts "Design for All" on Jan. 20, 2010, next to the ruins of Namildang where six people died in a deadly eviction one year earlier. / Courtesy of Ron Bandun

In those days, banners like this were up all over the city, advertising then-Mayor Oh Se-hoon's initiative to bring global recognition to Seoul's urban design. I could not imagine a worse place to hang a banner with that phrase, than right in front of a spot where six people were violently killed in the name of extreme redevelopment.

Namildang was eventually torn down, and the site stood empty for years after the original construction plans for the area fell through. It seemed the police had violently evicted the remaining protesters for nothing, that those lives were lost so the land could be cleared to make way for an accidental parking lot.

Even after the building was gone, I could still find the exact location where Namildang stood and the Yongsan Disaster happened. The curb right in front still exists just as it did back then, and a tree growing there is certainly the same one that narrowly avoided having its branches scorched in the fire. There's still a bus stop in the middle of the street right in front, which was one of the reasons why the police deemed the evictees as a threat ― while they were fighting back against hired goons who had terrorized them into fortifying themselves on the rooftop of the four-story building. For years, there had been a food tent selling hotteok right outside the lot, run by the widow of one of the men who died in the fire. It hasn't been seen there recently.

In December 2015 Hyosung won a construction order to build on the site, and the wasteland was fenced off by a tall white barrier hiding the rapid construction.

When I visited the site on Jan. 20, 2019, right on the fence in front of where Namildang had been, I observed two ads for fire prevention and rescue services, particularly focused on smoke detectors.

One showed a woman sleeping in bed while flames rose around her, asking "If there's a fire in your house, who will wake you up?" Another showed two smiling girls in firefighter outfits, one holding a fire extinguisher and the other holding a smoke detector, in front of an illustrated background showing four houses on fire. It's not bad advice, but then again, why did it need to include fire imagery, right there? Would you put a cartoon of a car crash in the road next to the scene of a fatal accident?

An ad on a construction wall in front of the Yongsan Disaster site asks "If there's a fire in your house, who will wake you up?" on Jan. 20. 2019. / Courtesy of Ron Bandun

An ad on a construction wall in front of the Yongsan Disaster site recommends fire prevention equipment on Jan. 20. 2019. / Courtesy of Ron Bandun

The fence was peeled away last year, revealing Harrington Place, the new high-rise building in the space. And in front of it, not three meters from where the front door of Namildang used to stand, is the "Fire Flower."

A plaque at its base, explaining the piece in Korean, translates to: "It is a work that harmonizes the shape of a burning fire and flowers. Like red flowers blooming in the gray city, it symbolizes the will and hope that comes out like fireworks in the midst of hardship."

It is close enough to the physical location where the flames of the Yongsan Disaster burned that I am surprised anyone would allow this accidental memorial to exist at this spot. If I were more paranoid, and if it had been the same developer that was in the picture in 2009, I might have suspected it was done to taunt the survivors and their hopeless struggle against neverending, unsentimental redevelopment backed by state-approved violence.

The "Fire Flower" installation is seen on July 14, 2020, near the curb in front of the former site of Namildang, where five evictee protesters and one riot police officer died in a daring rooftop raid that sparked a fire on Jan. 20, 2009. / Courtesy of Ron Bandun

But Hyosung deserves only praise: it rescued the site from stagnation. As the 12th anniversary of the Yongsan Disaster passes quietly this year, a new building finally stands fully completed at the site. I doubt they or the artist even knew the exact site of the Yongsan Disaster on their property. Now, thanks to the "Fire Flower," the Yongsan Disaster has been granted an accidental memorial. Whether or not it was what the artist attended, whenever I see the "Fire Flower" I'll think of the lives lost in the urbanization of Seoul.

The artist was contacted for comment but did not reply as of the time of publication.

Ron Bandun is a self-described "anarchaeologist."