The Occupied House
- 32
• Original title : 점거당한 집
• Price : 15,000KRW
• Product Dimensions :
115x188, 200pages
• Publication Date : 2024-08-30
• ISBN : 9791169812108
Book Information & Summary
Written by Choi Su Jin
Three short novels have the background of existing places, such as Gwang-ju, Yong-in, and Gyeong-ju and they present what happens after the nuclear accident in 2031. Society has to go through possible disasters that could happen in the near future, and the actions of artists as ordinary citizens living today are ironically identical to the ones of the past. People take care of one another after coming up with their memories of the 1980s in front of the future disaster in this novel. That is because disasters always ‘happen and ambush us’ without warnings regardless of time, and people also have gone through those disasters ‘by sharing what they have, even if so little,’ under painful circumstances. This novel hopes our society does not reflect our past in front of another disaster and also tells us what citizens should do in our society.
The three short novels are all independent, but they are read like a series in terms of sharing the same world view. The writing called ‘The Hope on The Street’, written by the narrator and reporter in May 2036, is the record about 15 days he had been participating in the protestors who occupied Gwang-ju Asian Culture Center in June, three years ago. Only ‘I’ was not a citizen of Gwang-ju in the group of protestors along with Chan-Lan, who was from Chicago as the second generation of Korean Americans. This memory became the first experience, in which he realized he himself was completely powerless as a citizen.
‘The Occupied House’, written by the narrator and writer, in August and September 2044 is the record of the activities of the artist brother and sister for the last decade. The novel's main setting, the Nam June Paik Art Center in Yong-in, is the space filled with memories of the siblings' childhood, where the elder Park Hani held a solo exhibition in 2033 and the younger Park Han-il held a retrospective of his sister's work in 2044. The siblings' work, including novels, book launches, performances, and art exhibitions, has an uncanny process that makes it seem as if they were created by one person.
‘Gyeong-ju of Geum-il’, written by the narrator, an addict and writer, in April 2044, is an attempt to remember the promising young novelist, Geum-il and his work. The city of Gyeong-ju in 2034-2035, where the narrator and Geum-il migrated, was ruined and destroyed and even the houses among tombs were all torn apart. The narrator who lives in the 2040s reads the novel that Geum-il wrote during his lifetime and follows his route to imagine the landscape of Gyeong-ju where Geum-il might have walked and seen. The reader follows the narrator's view and is caught between the Gyeong-ju we experience and remember today as a tourist city and the Gyeongju that was destroyed by the nuclear accident.
This book is “the novel about contemporary art, and also about the contemporary state of art,” just like Goo, Byeong-mo, the author, hopes that “in the not-too-distant future, creative and motivated young artists will propose to collaborate with this novel.” This novel’s attempts to occupy public spaces, such as the National Asian Culture Center and Nam June Paik Art Center, will give readers a strange and entertaining sense of fictional characters plotting something that could really happen in real places.
Three short novels have the background of existing places, such as Gwang-ju, Yong-in, and Gyeong-ju and they present what happens after the nuclear accident in 2031. Society has to go through possible disasters that could happen in the near future, and the actions of artists as ordinary citizens living today are ironically identical to the ones of the past. People take care of one another after coming up with their memories of the 1980s in front of the future disaster in this novel. That is because disasters always ‘happen and ambush us’ without warnings regardless of time, and people also have gone through those disasters ‘by sharing what they have, even if so little,’ under painful circumstances. This novel hopes our society does not reflect our past in front of another disaster and also tells us what citizens should do in our society.
The three short novels are all independent, but they are read like a series in terms of sharing the same world view. The writing called ‘The Hope on The Street’, written by the narrator and reporter in May 2036, is the record about 15 days he had been participating in the protestors who occupied Gwang-ju Asian Culture Center in June, three years ago. Only ‘I’ was not a citizen of Gwang-ju in the group of protestors along with Chan-Lan, who was from Chicago as the second generation of Korean Americans. This memory became the first experience, in which he realized he himself was completely powerless as a citizen.
‘The Occupied House’, written by the narrator and writer, in August and September 2044 is the record of the activities of the artist brother and sister for the last decade. The novel's main setting, the Nam June Paik Art Center in Yong-in, is the space filled with memories of the siblings' childhood, where the elder Park Hani held a solo exhibition in 2033 and the younger Park Han-il held a retrospective of his sister's work in 2044. The siblings' work, including novels, book launches, performances, and art exhibitions, has an uncanny process that makes it seem as if they were created by one person.
‘Gyeong-ju of Geum-il’, written by the narrator, an addict and writer, in April 2044, is an attempt to remember the promising young novelist, Geum-il and his work. The city of Gyeong-ju in 2034-2035, where the narrator and Geum-il migrated, was ruined and destroyed and even the houses among tombs were all torn apart. The narrator who lives in the 2040s reads the novel that Geum-il wrote during his lifetime and follows his route to imagine the landscape of Gyeong-ju where Geum-il might have walked and seen. The reader follows the narrator's view and is caught between the Gyeong-ju we experience and remember today as a tourist city and the Gyeongju that was destroyed by the nuclear accident.
This book is “the novel about contemporary art, and also about the contemporary state of art,” just like Goo, Byeong-mo, the author, hopes that “in the not-too-distant future, creative and motivated young artists will propose to collaborate with this novel.” This novel’s attempts to occupy public spaces, such as the National Asian Culture Center and Nam June Paik Art Center, will give readers a strange and entertaining sense of fictional characters plotting something that could really happen in real places.