SPACE June 2023 (No. 667)
©Youn Yaelim
Since Apr. 14, the exhibition ‘My Friend Incheon Town: Made in Incheon’, hosted by BOAN1942 (Tonguidong BoanYeogwan (inn)), has been on display in the ARTSPACE BOAN. BOAN1942’s ‘Made in’ series, which has been ongoing since 2016, is an exhibition project that seeks to reveal the unique values of each region, deviating from the perception of dividing the central area and province into two. This exhibition focused on Incheon, known for a satellite city of Seoul, jajangmyeon (black-bean-sauce noodles) and grilled shellfish, and even ‘devildom Incheon’. There are many sayings that suggest how people have thought or think of Incheon, but these words cannot capture the many layered nature of this historic city. This becomes even more apparent when you encounter the memories of Incheon excavated up by the five (teams of) participating artists, such as the Japanese’s houses that remain standing in the original downtown, Wolmisan Mountain as a Korean War battlefield and the DI DONG-IL CORPORATION factory that charts the history of women’s labour in the 1970s. Dongincheon Explorer, a team comprised of Incheon’s photographers and architects, explores the reserved neighbourhoods of Incheon’s old downtown, establishing new interpretations. As one of the routes explored in the show, Sinheung-dong seven houses (2019 – 2020) documents seven houses clearly expressing key impressions of what it is to live and work in Incheon across a period ranging from Japanese Colonial period, through records, architectural drawings, interviews, and photographs. Meanwhile, artist Lee Geumhong, who visited Shantung, known as the hometown of the overseas Chinese in Incheon’s Chinatown, distributed flyers to locals asking for their recipes for jajangmyeon, and received an automatically translated email with the title Jajangmyeon production method (2009). Unlike the jajangmyeon found in Korea, this somewhat unfamiliar-looking recipe underlines the fact that Chinatown is also perceived as the ‘chinese town’, as translated by Koreans. This exhibition, which intertwined the city with the city, locals with strangers, and went beyond those collective memories hidden in Incheon, closed on May 14. (by Youn Yaelim)
Exhibition view of ‘My Friend Incheon Town: Made in Incheon’ / ©Youn Yaelim