Hyung-Geun Park
Artist, Photographer
In conversation with Hyung-Geun Park
본 담화는 2021년 대안공간루프에서 개최된 박형근 개인전 Bleak Island(차가운 꿈)>과 연계하여 진행된 양지윤디렉터와의 인터뷰를 요약 정리하였다.
-양지윤(대안공간루프디렉터): 양
-박형근(작가): 박
양: 2005년부터 2021년까지 17년간 제주도를 촬영하고 있네요. 첫 촬영지는 어디였나요?
박: 제가 다녔던 중학교 근처, 애월에 있는 오름이예요. 어렸을 때는 오름 중턱에 위치한 동굴이 선명하게 보였는데, 영국유학 당시 잠시 제주를 방문했을 때 봤더니 동굴이 자연에 완전히 가려져 있더라고요. 그 상황이 제 시선을 사로 잡았던 것 같아요. 그 오름을 찍으면서 Bleak Island(차가운 꿈)>작업을 시작했어요.
양: 제주에서 태어나서 스무 살 무렵 떠났는데요. 제주의 현대사에 대해 어느 정도 알고 있으셨어요?
박: 제가 어렸을 때만 하더라도, 제주도에서 4.3은 금기어였어요. 4.3 사건의 존재 정도는 알고 있었지만, 그렇게 엄청난 사건인지는 몰랐어요. 25-26살 무렵 다큐멘터리 사진 작업에 흠뻑 빠져있었어요. 제주도 전역을 촬영하면서 과거사를 조금씩 알게 되었죠. 1998년 부터 관광지화 되어가는 제주도를 찍었는데요. 두번째 천국(The Second Paradise)> 작업이었죠. 관광산업과 관광객들의 행동 패턴을 촬영했어요. 지역 리서치를 하면서 제가 촬영한 로케이션들이 4.3사건과 연관된 곳이 많다는 것을 알게 되었습니다. 그 무렵 대정 송악산 인근의 벙커와 알뜨르 비행장의 격납고를 처음 찍었어요.
양: 당시 알뜨르는 완전히 달랐다고 하셨죠. 인근 주민들이 격납고를 창고로 썼다고요. 일제 강점기 비행장의 흔적이 주민에게는 중요한 게 아니니까요.
박: 그렇죠. 주민들은 비행장이 있던 땅에 농사를 짓고, 격납고를 농기계와 수확물을 보관하는 창고로 쓰고 있었어요. 이러한 상황이 아이러니하게 다가왔어요. 두번째 천국(The Second Paradise)>의 시작을 알리는 사진이 있어요. 늦가을에 붉은 깃발이 꽂혀 있는 사진이요. 밭에서 나온 쓰레기며 풀을 태워서 날리는 장면이 산방산을 배경으로 찍혔는데, 제 눈에는 흡사 전쟁터처럼 보였어요.
양: 알뜨르 비행장으로 전혀 보이지 않네요. 붉은 깃발도 거기에 있었어요?
박: 근처에 도로를 개발한다고 여기 저기에 깃발을 꽂아놓았더라고요. 제가 깃발 위치를 조금 바꿨지만요.
양: 저는 외지인이니까, 제주도는 늘 관광지였거든요. 관광화되어간다라는 표현이 새롭게 다가오거든요. 언제나 제주도는 관광지였는데, 어떻게 또 관광지화 될 수 있는지가 궁금해요.
박: 그럴 수 있죠. 제 기억에 1980년대까지만 하더라도 제주도 내 관광지는 특정지역으로 한정되어 있었어요. 중문, 서귀포, 성산이요. 그런데 1990년대 말 경부터는 제주도 전 지역이 관광지화 되어가고 있다는 변화를 느끼게 되었죠. 새로운 관광산업과 시설이 여기 저기에 생겨나고 관광의 패턴도 바뀌었어요.
양: (차가운 꿈)>에 있는 UFO 모양의 숙박시설 사진이 떠오르네요. 조악한 건축물을 세웠는데, 그 사업이 기울면서 방치되어 다시 주변 경관을 헤치는 흔적이잖아요. FRP로 만든 ‘자유의 여신상’ 촬영한 사진도 떠오르네요.
박: 네, 제주도 자체만으론 부족했는지 자꾸 이상한 것들을 들여와서 관광자원으로 활용하는 거죠. 정방폭포를 촬영했을 당시, 저는 그 곳이 4.3 학살터라는 사실을 알고 있었어요. 눈부시게 밝은 대낮에 관광객들이 폭포 배경으로 기념 사진을 찍고 있었어요. 저한테는 흘러 내리는 폭포수가 마치 선혈처럼 느껴지기도 하면서…. 복잡한 심정이 담긴 사진이에요. 알 수 없는 슬픔, 비애를 느끼며 셔터를 눌렀죠.
양: 저도 제주 4.3사건 70주년 기념전 잠들지 않는 남도>를 루프에서 기획하면서 역사적 사실을 많이 배울 수 있었어요. 한편으론 70년이라는 시간에 이 정도의 역사적 단절이 가능하다는 사실이 놀라웠어요. 4.3 단어 자체가 금기어였다고는 하지만, 이렇게 빠른 집단적 망각이 가능한가. 이런 질문을 하게 되더라고요.
박: 맞아요. 당시 제주도민들은 좌우라는 이념적 대립보다는, 피해자와 가해자가 될 수밖에 없는 역사적인 상황에 놓였던 거잖아요. 그래서 ‘스스로 침묵하지 않았나’라는 생각이 들어요. 한 마을에서 서로가 서로를 죽음으로 몰아가는 극한의 상황을 겪은 거죠. 이후 모든 소용돌이가 끝났을 때, 어떤 해답도 찾을 수 없지 않았을까…
양: 아무도 그 끔찍한 사건에 대해 말하지 않기로 한 걸까요? ‘덮어버리자’라는 암묵적 동의를 같이 한 건가 봐요.
박: 네. 어쩌면 모두가 피해자인 거죠. 한편으로는 이해도 돼요. 무서웠겠죠. 그 누구도, 무엇도 자신들을 지켜주지 않는다는 극심한 불안과 공포…
양: 4.3사건 뿐만 아니라, 일제강점기, 한국전쟁 이후에 또 다른 어두운 시기가 제주도에 있었죠. 1970년대 박정희 정권에서 제주도를 파라다이스화 시키려는 국가 정책을 만들었고요.
박: 네, 당시 정부가 제주도를 관광지화하면서 야자수를 심기 시작했다고 해요. 정치적 목적으로 제주에 야자수가 등장했죠.
양: Bleak Island(차가운 꿈)> 전시에서 소개한 용설란 사진이야기를 흥미롭게 들었어요. 제주 선인장들이 멕시코에 해류를 따라 떠밀려 와서 제주도에 정착한 것이라고요. 제주도의 이국적인 이미지를 고취시켜주는 존재인데, 알고 보면 제주도 고유종은 아닌 거죠. 외계 생명체 같이 생기기도 하고, 낯설게 다가오는데요. 구체적인 작업 얘기를 해볼까요? 다랑쉬,2008>는 4.3 사건을 다시 공론화시킨 역사적인 공간이죠. 1992년에 다랑쉬 동굴에서 시신 11구가 발견되면서요.
박: 네, 4.3 때 다랑쉬 마을 전체가 사라졌어요. 2008년 촬영 당시에는 다랑쉬 오름 사이로 둥근 지붕을 한 건물 11채가 생뚱맞게 있었어요. 당시 운영을 중단한 펜션 건물이었죠. 4.3 사건과 부동산 개발이 제주 표면에 겹쳐진 거죠.
양: 화성에 있는 기지 같아 보여요. 은 일제 강점기 당시 만든 진지동굴을 촬영한 사진인데요. 이제는 잊혀진 제주의 식민지 역사가 담겨있어요.
박: 제가 어릴 적 친구들과 놀던 해안가 동굴이 있어요. 자연 동굴이라고 생각했는데, 이후 일본군이 뚫어 놓은 진지동굴이란 것 알게 되었죠. 태평양 전쟁 말기가 되면, 제주에는 일본군 6만 명이 주둔했다는 사실도요. 일본은 미군과의 마지막 결전을 대비했던 전략적 기지로 제주를 바꿨어요.
양: 히로시 스기모토의 바다와는 다른 제주의 바다가 에서 보여요. 푸른색과 짙은 초록색, 회색의 바다와 하늘은 경계 없이 끝없는 안개에 뒤덮여 있어요.
박: 제게 제주의 바다는 감시의 바다예요. 한 치 앞을 내다볼 수 없었던 어두운 바다가 제주를 첩첩이 에워싸고 있다는 생각이 들어요. 낭만적인 제주 풍경은 허구일 뿐이죠.
양: 2012년에 촬영된 은 들여다 볼수록 재미있어요. 대형 카메라로 제주 들불축제를 촬영했는데, 곳 곳에 우스꽝스러운 현실들이 있죠..
박: 옛날 제주에서는 말 같은 가축의 방목을 위해 병해충을 방제하는 목적으로, 정월대보름 즈음 오름에 들불 놓기를 했어요. 1997년부터는 제주시가 주관하는 관광 축제로 변형되었는데요. 그 현장을 몇 해 동안 찾아가 촬영했어요. 반대편 언덕에는 불꽃 쇼를 찍기 위해 몰려든 엄청난 수의 사진가들이 있었죠. 폭죽이 터지는 현장에는 어느 유명 정치인이 연설을 하고 있고요. 그 야망이 불꽃으로 터져나가는 것 같은데, 무대 뒤편에는 소방차 몇 대가 소박하게 대기하고 있어요.
양: 사진은 3차원적 현실 세계를 2차원적 평면으로 담는다고들 하잖아요. 하지만 그 가시적 표면 너머를 사진에 담고자 한다고 말하셨죠.
박: 사진을 말할 때면 재현이나 복제와 기록 같은 단어를 늘 떠올리죠. 그런데 사진을 하면 할수록, 사진이 단순한 재현을 통해 얻어지는 평면 이미지에 머무르지 않는다고 느끼고 있어요.
양: 표면 너머에 진실 같은 것을 사진이 포착한다는 의미인가요?
박: ‘사진은 가시적인 표면을 다룬다’라는 사진 매체가 가지고 있는 한계를 늘 고민하는데요. 제가 찍고 있는 사진 작업이 제주도의 표면과 이면을 동시에 담고 있다고 생각해요. 시공간의 층이 사진 한 장에 존재하는 것인데요. 사진은 하나의 얕은 표면이 아니라, 여러 층위가 겹쳐진 두터운 표면이라는 거죠.
양: Bleak Island(차가운 꿈)> 시리즈는 2004년부터 2015년까지 진행한 텐슬리스(Tenseless)> 작업과 접근 방식이 다르다는 생각이 들어요. 텐슬리스(Tenseless)> 작업에서, 작가가 직접 현실 공간에 일종의 조작을 가한 상황을 촬영했어요. Bleak Island(차가운 꿈)>은 현실 그대로의 모습을 지속적으로 촬영한 연작인데 반해서요.
박: 제가 생각하기에 제주도는 이미 조작이 끝났다는 거예요.
양: 이미 너무 많은 조작이 들어가 있어서, 작가가 또 다른 조작을 할 필요가 없는 것이군요.
박: 네, (Tenseless)> 연작에서는 언어화할 수 없는 영역에 색이나 오브제를 적용시켜서, 다양한 레이어들을 하나의 이미지 안에서 축적시키려고 했어요. 반면 Bleak Island(차가운 꿈)>에서는 피사체들 자체가 선명하게 나타나 있기 때문에, 강제로 제어할 수가 없었죠.
제주도의 숲과 곶자왈을 촬영해서, 2011년 이라는 개인전을 열었어요. 작업 초기에는 그 숲이 자연 그대로의 원시림인 줄 알았는데, 실제로는 500여 년 전 사람들이 만든 인공 숲이었죠. 마을에 불이 자주 났었고, 산으로 부터 내려오는 화기를 막기 위해 그 숲을 조성한 거예요. 인간과 자연이 조화롭게 살아 갈 방법을 고민했던 결과가 바로 이 숲이라고 생각해요. 이 숲은 이후 4.3사건과 같은 현대사의 비극이 휩쓸고 간 곳이죠. 최근에는 관광객이 즐겨 찾는 명소로서 천연기념물처럼 보존되고 있어요. 그 숲을 촬영하면서, 제 생각도 바뀌게 되었죠. 우리가 살아가는 세계의 표면 또한 인간이 만들어 조작하고 재구성한 물질이라는 것을 깨닫게 되었어요. 순수한 형태의 표면은 존재하지 않는 다는 것이죠.
양: 맞아요. 제주도에 있는 말도 그렇잖아요. 고려 시대 몽골의 지배를 받으면서, 군마를 길러낼 목적으로 제주도에 목마장을 만들면서 말 품종이 바뀐 거잖아요. 제주 산 자생종 말은 사라지게 되었죠.
박: 네, 순수하고 낭만적이며 이상향 같은 제주도를 만들기 위해, 무수히 많은 역사적 개입이 있었어요.
In conversation with Hyung-Geun Park
This disclosure summarizes the interview with the director Ji-Yoon Yang regarding , the solo exhibition of Hyung-Geun Park, held in 2021 at Alternative Space LOOP.
Ji-Yoon Yang(Director of Alternative Space LOOP): Yang
Hyung-Geun Park(Artist): Park
Yang: You have been taking photographs of Jeju Island for 17 years from 2005 to 2021. Where was the first shooting location?
Park: It was the Oreum in Aewol, near the middle school that I went to. When I was young, I could clearly see the cave located on the hillside of the Oreum but I saw that the cave was cloaked in nature when I returned to Jeju for a short break while studying abroad in the United Kingdom. I think that situation captured my attention. I started working on while shooting the Oreum.
Yang: You were born and raised in Jeju and left your hometown around the age of 20. How much did you know about the modern history of Jeju?
Park: When I was young, 4.3 was a taboo word in Jeju Island. I was aware of the occurrence of the 4.3 Incident itself but I did not know how huge and serious it was. When I was 25-26, I was so into the works of photography documentary. It was not until I traveled all over Jeju Island for taking photographs that I began to learn the past little by little. I took photographs of Jeju Island which has become a tourist attraction since 1998. It was the work of in which I mainly focused on the tourism industry and behavioral patterns of the tourists. While doing research on the regions, I found that many of the locations that I had chosen to shoot were related to the 4.3 Incident. Around that time, I first took photographs of the bunker near Mountain Songak in Daejeong and the hangar at Altteureu Airfield.
Yang: You said that Altteureu seemed completely different back then. The neighboring residents used the hangar as a warehouse as they would not care about the traces of the airfield of the Japanese Colonial period.
Park: That is right. The residents were farming on the land where the airfield used to be and using the hangar as a warehouse for storing their agricultural equipment and harvests. This kind of situation seemed ironic to me. There is a photograph letting you know the beginning of . The one with a red flag waving in late autumn. The scene of burning grass and garbage from the fields was photographed with Mountain Sanbang in the background and it looked like a battlefield to me.
Yang: It doesn't look like Altteureu Airfield at all. Was the red flag there too?
Park: Someone put the flags everywhere for signs of new road developments nearby. I just slightly moved the flag to this spot from where it was.
Yang: Since I am not from around there, Jeju Island has always been a tourist attraction to me. The expression of becoming a tourist attraction sounds like a new. I wonder how Jeju Island can become even more like the tourist attraction since it always has been so.
Park: It can be. As far as I remember, until the 1980s, the tourist sites in Jeju Island were limited to certain areas such as Jungmun, Seogwipo and Seongsan. However, from the late 1990s, I started to feel the change that the entire island of Jeju had been becoming a tourist attraction. New tourism industries and facilities were developed and the pattern of tourism was changed as well.
Yang: It reminds me of the accommodation in a UFO shape that I have seen in your work . Some kind of poor structures were built but have been neglected for years as the business became slack, and they have remained awkward and deferred not a whit to anything around them ever since. The photograph of the Statue of Liberty made of FRP also springs to mind.
Park: Yes, some people may feel insufficient with the things from Jeju Island itself and they started to bring lots of weird ones and used them as tourist resources. When I took photographs of Jeongbang Waterfall, I knew it was a massacre site of the 4.3 Incident. The mid-afternoon sun was dazzling, and tourists were taking pictures of themselves with the waterfall as the backdrop. To me, I felt as if the rushing water from the waterfall looked like fresh blood… This photograph contains very complicated feelings I had. For some inexplicable reason, I pressed the shutter with the feeling of sorrow and grief.
Yang: I could learn many historical facts as I planned , the exhibition of 70th Anniversary of Jeju 4.3 Uprising and Massacre, at LOOP. On the other hand, it was surprising that we can feel this level of historical severance in 70 years. I cannot help asking this question, is it possible for people to fell into collective oblivion in such a short time even though the word '4.3' itself was a taboo?
Park: I agree. I would say that the people in Jeju Island around that time were in the middle of historical situation where they were forced to be victims or perpetrators rather than be engaged in ideological confrontation between the left and the right. I think that was the reason why they 'chose to remain silent.' In the same village, they had to go through extreme situations in which they drove each other to death. No answer could have been found even after everything was settled down…
Yang: Everyone decided not to talk about the terrible incident, did they? There seemed to have been a tacit agreement to 'cover it up.'
Park: Right. Maybe all of them were victims. I can understand that on the other hand. They must have been frightened. That feeling of panic, extreme state of anxiety that no one and nothing could protect them…
Yang: In addition to the 4.3 Incident, there was another dark period in Jeju Island after the Japanese Colonial period and the Korean War. In the 1970s, the Park Chung-Hee administration made a national policy to make Jeju Island a 'paradise.'
Park: Yes, it is said that the government at that time started planting palm trees as they were developing Jeju Island as a tourist destination. Those palm trees were planted for political purposes in Jeju.
Yang: It was interesting to hear the story of the agave introduced at the exhibition . You said this species of cactus in Jeju is originally from Mexico and carried by the sea currents. It forms the exotic image of Jeju Island but actually, it's not the endemic species of Jeju Island. It looks like something extraterrestrial, and so unfamiliar to me. Shall we talk about more specific things about your work? is the historical site; a total of 11 corpses were discovered in Darangshi Cave in 1992 and this event increased public awareness of the 4.3 Incident.
Park: Yes, the entire village of Darangshi was razed during the 4.3 Incident. At the time of taking photographs in 2008, amid the Darangshi Oreum standed eleven buildings with domed roofs, looking out of space. Those were the buildings of pensions closed down at that time. The 4.3 Incident and real estate development together shaped Jeju's landscape.
Yang: They look like stations in Mars. is the photograph of a cave fortification dating back to the colonial period. It shows the almost forgotten colonial history of Jeju.
Park: There is a seaside cave where I used to play with my friends when I was young. I thought it was a natural cave but later I happened to know that it was a cave fortification made by the Japanese force. By then I also learned the fact that about 60,000 Japanese soldiers were stationed in Jeju at the end of the Pacific War. Jeju became a strategic base where the Japanese forces prepared to make a last stand against the U.S. Army.
Yang: In your work , I can see the sea of Jeju that is different from the one in Sugimoto Hiroshi's work. Its blues, dark greens, and greys merge with the sky and are cloaked by a limitless fog.
Park: I call the sea around Jeju "the sea of surveillance." Not being able to see an inch ahead of myself, I feel like Jeju is surrounded in layers by the dark sea. The romantic landscapes of Jeju are just figments.
Yang: The more I look at the photographs in , the more interesting they are. You photographed Jeju's Deulbul Festival using a large format camera and the funny things that happen in reality were shown everywhere.
Park: In the old days in Jeju, bush fires were lit around the time of the first full-moon day of the lunar year, Jeongwol Daeboreum, to prevent diseases and control pests where livestock such as horses grazed. This tradition was recreated to the tourism festival organized by the City of Jeju in 1997. I visited the place to take photographs for years. On the opposite side of the hill, a huge number of photographers were gathered to take pictures of fireworks. While the sky was lit up with fireworks, a famous politician was making his speech on the ground. The aspiration delivered from his speech was just like the fireworks exploding in the skies, but behind the stage a few firetrucks were on standby.
Yang: It is said that three-dimensional realities are printed on two-dimensional surface of photographs. However, you said you wanted to photograph something beyond the visible surface.
Park: Whenever I talk about photography, the words like representation, reproduction, and documentation come to my mind. The more I take photographs, the more I feel that the photographs do not remain as plain images obtained by the process of simple representation.
Yang: Does it mean that photographs capture things like truths beyond the surface?
Park: I always think more about the limitation that photographs have as the medium: 'Photography deals with the visible surface.' I believe my works contain both the exposed surface and the hidden side of Jeju Island. The layers of time and space remain present in one single photograph. A photograph is made up of several layers overlapped on its surface, not a single shallow surface layer.
Yang: It seems that your method of approach in the series of is different from that of you had worked on from 2004 to 2015. In your work of , the artist himself manipulated the real space in some way and photographed this situation. In contrast, in the series of , the artist continued to photograph the reality as it is.
Park: What I think is things in Jeju Island have already been manipulated.
Yang: The artist doesn't need to manipulate something as there has already been too much manipulation in there.
Park: Yes, in the series of , I tried to accumulate various layers in a single image by applying colors or an objet that cannot be expressed in language. However in the works of , I couldn't control the subjects by force as they were vivid and very clearly visible. I had an exhibition under the title of in 2011 after taking photographs of forests and Gotjawal in Jeju Island. In the beginning, I thought the forest that I was shooting was a virgin forest but in fact, it was an artificial one developed by people almost 500 years ago. As fires were frequent in the village, they formed the forest to block the force of the fire created from the mountain. I think this forest is the result of careful consideration of how humans can live in harmony with nature. This forest has been swept away by the tragic historical events such as the 4.3 Incident. In recent days, it has been well preserved like a national treasure and become a tourist attraction. While shooting the forest, I changed my mind as well. I realized that the surface of the world we live in was also a material that has been created, manipulated and reconstructed by humans. The surface in its pure form simply doesn't exist.
Yang: Right. It's the same with horses in Jeju Island. During the Goryeo Dynasty, under Mongolian rule, the horse breeds had changed after building horse ranches for breeding war-horses. The Jeju horses, indigenous to Jeju Island, became extinct.
Park: Yes, there have been countless historical interventions to make Jeju Island a pure, romantic place like a utopia.