Yeondoo Jung
Handmade Memories, 2008, Dual channel HD video with sound, Running time: 54min 17sec. Courtesy of the artist. © Yeondoo Jung.
Handmade Memories is a two-channel video work; on the left, six elders orate stories based on their own memories while on the right, a stage crew constructs a set for each story. Collecting the oft-overlooked stories of elders who spend their days in and around Seoul’s Anguk, Jongmyo Shrine, and Tapgol Park neighborhoods, the artist uses “handicraft” to bring their memories to life. Tracing multiple spatial layers through a combination of images and narrative, the work explores the gap between memory and reality, taking specific scenes from personal memories, times that can never be experienced again, and summoning them into reality. Through video, media, and installation, Yeondoo Jung (b. 1969) moves freely between reality and fiction to stage happy memories, never to come again, in elaborate theatrical sets—like so many mirages.
