The contemporary artist Park Chan-kyong is currently participating in Rewriting the poetry, an exhibition marking the 60th anniversary of the 3•15 Movement at the Gyeongnam Provincial Museum of Art. The exhibition includes a roster of seven leading Korean contemporary artists who explore the undiscovered motives and subjects hidden behind the vast context of historical discourse. Known for his works which critically reflect upon the multilateral implications of modern Korean history by traversing reality and fiction, Park presents Citizen’s Forest (2016) as part of the exhibition.   

Inspired by Kim Soo-young’s poem Colossal Roots (1964) and Oh Yoon’s unfinished painting The Lemures (1984), Citizen’s Forest is a three-channel video presented in the form of a traditional ‘shan-su (landscape)’ scroll painting. The groups of people marching through the forest represent the countless, nameless lives lost in the tragic episodes of Korea’s modernization including the Donghak Peasant Revolution (1894), the Korean War (1950-1953), the Gwangju Uprising (1980), and the recent Sewol Ferry Disaster (2014). Park recalls these victims of the past to the present, creating a site to solemnly mourn these wandering spirits and provide consolation. The exhibition is spread across three galleries and also features Choi Suhwan’s visualization of circulating history titled doppelganger (2018) and Kang Taehun’s portrayal of the darker sides of social structure titled Dead-end#2 (2019). The exhibition, which introduces visitors to a novel outlook on the world by showcasing works that provide a multifaceted perspective on history, runs through May 17, 2020.