Cheonan Jian Injaan (天安地安人自安). Since the sky is comfortable and the earth is comfortable, humans are also comfortable. This is an expression of pride that Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, is so comfortable to live in. If you say it’s a secluded place, that’s not it. There are places that cannot be missed in modern and contemporary history, including the site of Yu Gwan-sun’s sister’s market, the birthplace of independence activist Lee Dong-nyeong and Lee Beom-seok, as well as the Independence Hall of Korea. However, it is not all that solemn. If you look at a place you often hear and see with slightly different eyes, you can feel the healing of scars and the dynamism of life.
● Illakseosan Mountain
At the Independence Hall of Korea, located at the southeastern foot of Mt. Heukseong, which is 519 meters high, you will be in good shape. This is natural given the record of resistance to submission and subordination enforced by the Japanese Empire. Let’s lighten your solemn body and mind as you go through the exhibition hall. Walk southwest from ‘Gyeore’s House’, the largest tile-roofed house in Asia. You can see granite stairs going up a low hill. The stones forming the layers are different. Climb the flat hill ridge and take about ten steps. aha!
It is a three-story terraced circular pit with a diameter of about 40m and a depth of 5m. It looks like the ancient Roman Colosseum. There is a spire in the center. Height 8.5m, diameter 3.5m, weight 35t. Twelve stone pillars support the skewered helmet-shaped top on a circular platform covered with copper plates. This is the spire of the old Joseon Government-General building, which was demolished on August 15, 1995. Inside and outside the pit, stone pillars with only the base or top remaining are standing or lying here and there. It’s the remains of that building.
A huge building with a total floor area of 31,309㎡ (approximately 9,471 pyeong), one semi-basement floor, five above-ground floors, and a central concrete dome covered with copper plates stood blocking the front of Geunjeongjeon at Gyeongbokgung Palace. After it was completed in 1926, 10 years after construction began, it was the headquarters of Japanese colonial rule for 19 years. After the establishment of the government of the Republic of Korea, it served as a general government building under the name of Central Office until 1982, and was used as the National Museum of Korea until it was demolished.
<img src="https://dimg.donga.com/wps/NEWS/IMAGE/2024/10/26/130298273.1.jpg" alt="An exhibition park where the Japanese Government-General of Korea was demolished at the Independence Hall of Korea in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province. The spire of the Japanese Government-General of Korea is located in the center. The surrounding stones are also what remained after the stairs and pillars were demolished at the time. Provided by GNC21″/>
Stones with a total weight of about 1,000 tons, which were used as 17 different members, including the building’s pillars, balconies, corner towers, and stair railings, are scattered across about 5,000 m2 (about 1,500 pyeong) of ruined, tomb-like land. Under the name of ‘Exhibition Park for the Demolition of the Japanese Government-General of Korea’.
The park was located on the west side of Independence Hall. This is where the sun sets. It is the transience of invasion and the loneliness of the sunset. The reason the land was dug 5m was to overlook the spire, the symbol of the Government General building. Also, 5m is the depth of the land dug for foundation construction after the Japanese removed Gwanghwamun and Hongnyemun (Heungnyemun) inside Gyeongbokgung Palace. The Japanese built the foundation by driving 9,388 larch piles around the Yalu River. But the sun sets in the west. Now the spire looks up at us.
This place is liberation for some people. Healing of deep wounds. It goes beyond venting. Damien Hirst, the darling of British modern art who has delved into the theme of ‘death’, said this about his work ‘For the Love of God’ (2007), which features a skull with 8,601 diamonds.
“When faced with death, the only thing you can do is decorate your skull. So I thought of the decoration as a kind of tribute, a tribute to death.”
This park, which children say is “like a Greek temple,” is a ‘decoration’ for the death of Japan. It is a tribute to the end of 35 years of oppression suffered by Koreans. For some, it is a calming emotion.
● Life and healing
This is a scathing jeer at the Culture and Arts Promotion Act’s architecture and artwork system. The regulation that ‘when constructing a building with a total floor area of 10,000 m² or more, up to 0.7% of the project cost must be spent on installation costs for art works’ is a sophisticated satire on the reality of mass producing works to match the assortment. This is the story of Arario Sculpture Plaza.
This plaza, located on Mannan-ro, Dongnam-gu, Cheonan City, has 28 sculptures, including Hirst’s enamel-painted bronze statue ‘Hymn’, as well as sculptures by Armand Fernandez, Keith Haring, Subodh Gupta, Gohei Nawa, Mr. Kim, and Sung Dong-hoon. The work ‘Hymn’, contained in a huge glass box, is 6m high and weighs 6t. Standing in front of it is Armand’s work ‘Millions of Miles – A Long Journey’, which is 20 meters high and is made up of 999 unusable axles. Gupta’s work ‘Line of Control’ created a large mushroom cloud by attaching thousands of old iron cooking utensils such as pots, bowls, and cups. My work ‘Manifold’ is 13m high, 16m wide, 12m long and weighs 27 tons.
The space where the works are placed is unfamiliar. There are no sculptures standing in squares and streets, but these works seem to define buildings, squares, streets, and people. If they disappear, it will just be a scene from a busy city. Hearst said.
“If you look at the picture of the moon taken by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), there is a flag there. It is an unknown land, but the moment you plant a flag, people start to believe that they know the land. But if you take the flag away, it’s just some crazy sight.”
Unfamiliarity implies both fear and hope for the future. ‘Hymn’, which Hirst created by enlarging his son’s 27,000 won toy ‘Little Scientist’s Anatomy Set’ human anatomy doll, reminds us of death and healing. Hirst, who believes that art, like medicine, has the ability to heal, said, “Art can give you something more, and it’s like a gift.” Healing is connected to hope. Kim Chang-il, chairman of Arario Group, who created this plaza, said, “I hope people realize that art is not the exclusive domain of a few, but that it provides relaxation to everyone, like the shade of a zelkova tree.”
On the 27th of last month, the Cheonan Heungtaryeong Dance Festival 2024 Dance Parade was held at Mannan-ro, with over 4,000 dancers from 55 countries participating under the theme of ‘Dance combining the spirit of challenge and creativity.’ The works in the plaza seen from the center line of the road, which was closed to vehicle traffic, presented a different scenery. I hope people will look at the sculptures on this road, even if it’s just for a few minutes a day.
● Stirring
The life that has been healed and has hope is alive and moving. You can feel the vibrant energy at the birthplace of Lee Dong-nyeong in Mokcheon-eup. Sit in a yard of about 30㎡ (approximately 9 pyeong) and listen to the music of the janggu and gong drum. My heart fluttered as I saw the beona play, which involves spinning a bowl and pretending to catch a falcon from Taejo Mountain, the chaesang sogo play, which involves playing a small gong and spinning a sangmo, and the twelve-leg sangmo play, which involves spinning a long top hat, right in front of me. Cheonan City Heungtaryeong Pungmul Troupe performs every Thursday at 11:20 a.m. Unfortunately, the 31st is the last day of the year.
You can soothe your regrets at the Taejo Mountain Forest Recreation Complex. It is a zip coaster that slides down with a rope attached to a rail installed in the air in the forest. Among the zip coasters operated by various local governments, the rail length is the longest at 510m. My body feels the thrill of shaking back and forth, as if I’m going to hit a tree, and the speed of covering the race in 2 minutes.
It is time to go meet the tree that ‘conceived’ Cheonan walnut snacks. This is a walnut tree at Gwangdeoksa Temple in Gwangdeok-ri. A walnut tree, about 20 meters tall and about 400 years old, welcomes you with its lush branches wide open. It is said to be the great-grandson of the walnut tree seedlings brought and planted by Yu Cheong-sin, an interpreter in the late Goryeo Dynasty. So, it is the progenitor of walnut snacks. This is how life continues.
※Hurst’s words refer to ‘Damien Hirst I Met – Face-to-face Interview with a Bad Boy in the Modern Art World’ (Marronnier Books).