Zeboriskie Point, The Ideal Space of Zebo where the Past and the Present are Stored
Yoo, Young-Ah (Curator, Seoul Museum of Art)
The solo exhibition of Artist Park, Byounglae, “Zeboriskie Point” (August 3-21, 2011, Boan Inn) is an exhibition that talks about the historicity of a region through a character called “Zebo.” This exhibi- tion allows the audience to think about the history of the past and the present again in the region which is remained in the photos and videos left by Zebo and the artist searches for the trace of Zebo through the space suit, helmet, oxygen tank, and the childhood memories of others left by Zebo. However rather than describing the historical issues of the region, the artist comprehended it through Zebo’s nonchalant yet meticulously observing behavior, serious yet comical behavior, and by putting the story in an implicative way in the video. In other words, although Zebo collects the information where he landed, the hidden historical truth of the place is behind Zebo, an alien’s comical behav- iors who seems to be nonchalant about the history of the place. Therefore, if you only focus on the fragmental action of Zebo and not understand the exhibition as another form of individual work, then it will not be easy to understand what the artist was trying to say through this. It is because this is one of the formal frameworks to hold the topic of the exhibition space and also the double track that strengthens the topic. In the organization of the exhibition, it achieves the full exhibition by combining all the objects, photos, and films exhibited in each rooms of the 1st and 2nd floor of the exhibition space like the graphic novel which is completed through the connection of implied image cuts without any lines. The works of each room can become an independent work that has integration but they also become the elements that form the whole. Additionally, each room of the Boan Inn, the exhibition hall becomes each cut of the graphic novel and the framework of Boan Inn located in Tongui-dong, the exhibition hall becomes frames of the cuts. If you look at the exhibition with this in mind, it is a small art piece of the prologue on the first floor which main consists of the relics of Zebo and the materials associated with him indirectly and the main story of 2nd floor which shows his actual full-fledged journey through an audiovisual record.
Along with the unique typography stating “Zeboriskie Point,” the 1st floor is filled with props displayed as relics in each room and if filled with fungi and damp aura in an ownerless room. These elements indicate that Zebo is no longer remaining in this space. However, it is impossible to learn who this character named Zebo is, why he has left these records, why there is no owner, and where he has gone to. However it is possible to estimate who Zebo was through his relics such as the images left behind and the oral records, the space suit, oxygen helmet, and the oxygen tank. For example, the entrance to the space station of the recorded image and the numbers representing the coordinates show that he was related to space. Additionally, through a man’s remembrance of a wharf with Zebo’s name in it allows people to estimate that Zebo is somehow related to the region with a wharf. This remembrance is not about historical facts of the region but gives the people a sense of reality about the character Zebo through the point that it is a testimony of a person who actually spent the time in that space in reality. Additionally, by looking at the photo of the actual space of the “The 18th Bank of Japan (Nagasaki 18th Bank) Gunsan Branch hanging on the 1st floor, people can estimate that his activities took at this place. This photo is like preliminary information which allows people to under- stand the image as the same space of Zebo’s image. When people look at this photo more in detail,
the indoor landscape which has changed into a ruin which is empty with no one in it, the people can vaguely estimate that this place was actually a place with active events or in other words, a hip place in the past. As the artist stated, this reminds the people of the abandoned empty grand mansion in the space ship changing into a ruin which was in the “Magnetic Rose,” the first episode of Japanese Animation titled “Memories (1995).” The past glory is nowhere to be found and the appearance cap- tured in the photo only is full of pieces of plywood fallen from the walls, the debris, or trash.
The 2nd floor is composed of three video clips which recorded Zebo’s journey in Gunsan and 2 photos taken of his appearance. Among the 2 photos, one of them was Zebo’s upper body with his helmet on and the other photo was of Zebo facing the portrait hanging on the walls of the hall in the photo hanging on the 1st floor. Additionally, the 3 video clips exposing the skeletons being played in each of the room are showing Zebo’s activity record on how he first arrived here, how he made his own domain, and how he exposed the surrounding areas, and how he collected and sent the information in the chorological order. If one of the three video clips shows how Zebo has created his own domain, the other two clips show Zebo’s fractional activity.
The first clip best reveals what kind of a character Zebo is. The appearance of Zebo arriving from somewhere wearing his space suit, and the sequence of ways how he has constructed the base camp, the way he made the database and the safe device, and the way he installed the transmitter show the people what was the purpose of his journey here. The “Zeboriskie Point” which he built at the wilder- ness which seemed like a desert with severe winds is a pure area where the nature exists naturally with only his space without any signs of civilization. This is like the desert space where the two main characters of “Zabriskie Point (1970)” of Michelangelo Antonioni (1921-2007) which the artist Park was greatly inspired by decided to be the ideal place to realize their ideals.1) Additionally, this is also the unrealistic space of desert where the adventures and fantasies are spread in “Arzach (1976)” of Moebius.2) In this space, Zebo is able to be away from anyone’s interference and threats and send the information collected and stored to somewhere. Then through the base camp which is created through a wooden sticks forming a circular framework and the data base created in the middle of it, and the magnifier compressing the data and space, Zebo is able to complete his work.
The remaining two video clips are the visual records of exploration after Zebo has created his own area. Among one of them is about the forgotten and abandoned space in history. It is regarding the Nagasaki 18th Bank Gunsan Branch which was fabulous and wealthy in the past in Gunsan. This build- ing was building 1907 during the Japanese Imperialism in Korea and in 1934 after it was established as the Chosun Rice Warehouse Co., Lt., it was owned by the Dongyang Cheokshik Co., Ltd. After Korea gained back its independence, it was used as the Korea Express Co., Ltd., the Gunsan Branch. Afterwards, it was used as a discotheque and other purposes by the local gangs and there were many ups and downs in the modern history era. However, the thing that came into Zebo’s eyes first as he inspected the building was trash scattered here and there and one advertisement poster hanging on the wall. Zebo points a long nozzle that looks like a pesticide sprayer to the famous actor wearing a white coat in the poster. Although this is a serious action taking in the information, Zebo’s action seems like he is fighting against the man in the poster. This looks funny as if Don Quixote charging toward the windmill. Although this action is serious and severe, this action cause people to burst out laughing like a black comedy and as a result, while watching the action of a character named Zebo allows the audience to see the “Nagasaki 18th bank” objectively without being buried by the historical weight the name gives us. Another visual record of exploration was regarding the Gunsan U.S. Base which was developed into a military base from the base of the livelihood of the aboriginal people under the justification of national security. However, like the visual record of exploration of the Nagasaki 18th Bank, Zebo is working hard to collect information from the bark of the trees and
the overgrown weeds regardless of this fact. The fact that this area filled with the noise of airplanes landing was the center of political dispute caused by the expansion of the base is hidden in the distant landscape behind Zebo’s exploration. This nonchalant behavior of Zebo reveals a natural objective reality and produces the effect of interest in this issue rather than showing the political issues clearly and revolutionize through arouse a certain action.
Through the artist, Park, Byounglae, Zebo who has revived within the history, his ideal area of Zebo- riskie Point, and the historicity of the area and the irrationality of the development of logic are rather revealed in a comical way indirectly through the SF elements of an alien. However the reason why this is not just ridiculous is because it has a sense of seriousness through a documentary approach in the form of exploration record. Additionally, the historical meaning of Boan Inn which has been maintained its form through having different forms throughout the turbulent modern history and the significance of Gunsan’s modern historical meaning shown in the area are being piled on up one on another. In conclusion, by exposing the history of a particular place and the current historical context of a particular place like Gunsan through a stranger’s collections and tracking, and not the resident of the place, it allows the audience to recognize the place in a more objective way. And that recognition can be made more clearly when the overall exhibition has been read like one graphic novel based on the individual pieces of work that make up the overall exhibition.
1. Zabriskie Point is a desert located in the Death Valley National Park in California, U.S.A.
2. Moebius is the pen name of Jean Giraud (1938-?), a leading writer of Graphic Novels.