In/Visible—New Directions in Contemporary Art by Zainichi Koreans: Fragile Frames/Precarious Lives—in Soni Kum's Morning Dew (2020)

Abstract:

A growing body of research, writing, and new spaces for exhibitions, film-showings, dialogue, and exchange elucidate rich and diverse forms of cultural production by Zainichi Koreans across generations. The first section of this paper introduces selected collaborative research and curatorial projects conducted from 2000 to the present that have engaged artists, scholars, and activists concerned with Korean diaspora and postcolonial studies, intergenerational memory and contemporary art in Japan. Over the last two decades, a younger generation of artists and curators and new possibilities to hold exhibitions have helped make contemporary art works by Zainichi Koreans more visible in Japan. At the same time, in a context where the history and political struggles faced by Zainichi Koreans are still not well-understood and as tensions in the East Asian region and polarizing right-wing media generating hate speech are again on the rise, many of these artists are finding ways to make personal family histories that are entangled with colonial history visible; these histories have often been invisible in official historical and mainstream media narratives. The second section focuses on Soni Kum's Morning Dew: The Stigma of Being "Brainwashed" (2020), a collaborative project supported by the Kawamura Arts and Cultural Foundation, Socially Engaged Art Support Center, that has opened up a space for dialogue about Zainichi Koreans impacted by the North Korean Repatriation Project (1959–1984). Through their works, Soni Kum and other participating Japanese artists engage with "ex-returnees" deeply affected by their cross-border migrations and present-day struggles, as they explore themes of visibility and invisibility, voices and silence.