문화예술프로젝트 사례를 통해 본 문화예술 플랫폼으로서의 DMZ 연구 - 리얼 디엠지 프로젝트와 DMZ 피스플랫폼 사례를 중심으로 -

Abstract

The DMZ on the Korean Peninsula is a place of paradox where North and South Korea, who are complete strangers to each other but inseparable at the same time, coexist. As a living vestige of Cold War, the DMZ has become a symbol of divided country and the site for a “platform,” a foothold in sharing. Research on the DMZ as the essence of the history of the Korean War and the huge war heritage archive have been actively carried out, but most of them are policy studies mainly focusing on national and regional governance strategies for the area. Since 2010, however, studies have been published suggesting the DMZ as a cultural resource and presenting methodologies for incorporating arts and culture in the DMZ and the area along the border. This paper goes further from the previous studies, defining the DMZ as a stronghold for both tangible and intangible culture. It recognizes the borderline in the Korean Peninsula as a platform that can connect the two Koreas - divided due to the war but sharing the same boundary- in tangible and intangible ways. Combining the concept of platform in an art project at the DMZ aims to expand the idea to include psychological boundaries within contemporary issues through the DMZ as medium. Projects for contemporary arts and culture at the DMZ area focus on the “relationship” that leads to our lives. In fact, the paradoxical place, the DMZ where reality and fantasy, and borderline and stronghold coexist, overlaps with our reality. And there, our past is remembered, statements of the present are made and creations for the future are realized all through art and culture, an empathic mechanism. To clarify this concept, this paper focuses on case studies of two site–specific projects which took place in and around the DMZ, aiming to reflect our time. The Real DMZ Project, an ongoing project at Cheorwon, Gangwon Province which has been carried out since 2012 trying to cross the psychological and physical border of the divided country, falls into this category as well as The DMZ Peace Platform, a project produced at the borderline between public and artistic nature at a former US military base, Camp Greaves in the DMZ in Gyeonggi Province. The two examples symbolize the process of preserving the DMZ’s identity with artists and creating new values in our time through their creative endeavor with an eye on the future. Based on this research, the DMZ has the potential to be a platform of the cultural center of our time that can archive our memories and expand them. Therefore, it is necessary to view the DMZ as the territory of arts and culture from the perspective of sharing and exchange. The concept of the DMZ platform - the focus of this study - is the necessary values of our time which will serve as a new methodology that defines the realm of culture for the future DMZ research and related studies.