th “If we imagine going underground, we not only imagine an environment where organic nature is largely absent; we also retrace a journey that is one of the most enduring and powerful cultural traditions of humankind, a metaphorical journey of discovery through descent below surface”. Rosalind Williams Much of the perception of the historic, territorial Korean landscape is an act of imagination. The 38th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 38 degrees North of the Earth's equatorial plane which once divided the peninsula. This project proposes to retrace the original border as way of memorial, stimulated by the process of conceptualising the invisible line in metaphor, transient, relegated to the realm of imagination. The 38th parallel line eventuates at its intersection at the present border. To enter here is to exit the world as we have known and imagined it. The proposed architecture inhabits the rich territory between two ideological positions, namely that of making monument or conversely, of leaving only footprints.
1 4 2 35 A HISTORY OF WARFA Following the Second World War, the Korean Peninsula, which had been occupied by parallel. The north was occupied by Soviet troop
A history of warfare and stalemate Korea 1900-2018 Following the Second World War, the Korean Peninsula, which had been occupied by the Empire of Japan since 1910, was divided into two separate zones along the 38th parallel. The north was occupied by Soviet troops, while the South was occupied by Americans. The division was intended to be temporary, but negotiations over reuni cation broke down and two separate governments were formed: The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) in the north, led by the enigmatic communist Kim Il-sung, and the Republic of Korea (ROK) in the south, under the democratically elected Rhee Syng-man. Both governments claimed to be the legitimate rulers of the peninsula. Tensions between north and south gradually mounted, until nally, in June 1950, hundreds of thousands of North Korean troops stormed across the 38th parallel. The unsuspecting South Korean defenders were outgunned and outnumbered and beat a hasty retreat southward. The United Nations condemned the invasion, and swiftly deployed a peacekeeping force comprised largely of American troops. (Fifteen other UN nations sent troops to Korea as well, in smaller numbers.) But they were unable to mount an e ective defense, and by September they had been hemmed into a small area on the southeastern corner of the peninsula, near the port city of Busan. To break the siege, U.S. forces launched a bold amphibious assault on the city of Incheon, some 150 miles behind the front line. It was a resounding success. Bolstered by their rst major victory of the con ict, allied forces crossed the partition line in late September 1950, and continued their steady northward advance. By the end of October, they had reached the Yalu River on the Chinese border. But China's young communist government saw the UN forces' encroachment on their border as a security threat. In late October 1950, China sent some 300,000 well-armed and provisioned troops across the Yalu River, to drive the UN (and American) forces back. China's intervention dramatically shifted the momentum of the con ict—just as the UN's intervention had done, months before—and by December, Chinese troops had reclaimed all of the territory captured during the allied o ensive. Over the next two years, the front lines gradually calci ed near the 38th parallel and the war which in its initial phases, had witnessed dramatic territorial gains and losses—devolved into one of attrition. By 1953, both sides had grown weary of ghting, and so in July of that year, representatives of the UN, North Korea, and China signed an armistice agreement, suspending hostilities until a permanent peace deal could be reached. South Korea did not sign the armistice, however, and so the war never o cially ended. Half a century later, the political situation on the Korean Peninsula remains as tenuous as ever. Images: 1. U.S. forces land at Incheon. (U.S. Army/public domain) 2. A newspaper headline announcing the Korean War’s end. (U.S. Navy Museum photo) 3. UN delegate Lieut. Gen. William K. Harrison, Jr. (seated left), and Korean People’s Army and Chinese People’s Volunteers delegate Gen. Nam Il (seated right) signing the Korean War armistice agreement at P’anmunjŏm, Korea, July 27, 1953. (U.S. Department of Defense (F. Kazukaitis. U.S. Navy) (a crop of NARA FILE #: 080-G-625728, WAR & CONFLICT BOOK #: 1517) 4. First Lieutenant Baldomero Lopez leads his men over the seawall. (U.S. Navy/public domain) 5. Army Gen. Mark W. Clark signs the Korean War Armistice agreement on July 27, 1953, after two years of negotiations. (U.S. Navy Museum photo) ARE AND STALEMATE y the Empire of Japan since 1910, was divided into two separate zones along the 38th ps, while the South was occupied by Americans.
100km Senyang, 50km Liaoning Pyongyang 150km to DMZ 50km 2.8 2 0km billion Propaganda 1 50km balloons sent 3 100km to each other in the last 60 Baengnyeong despite of the Seoul Island controlled border 40km to Yeopyeong DMZ Island 5000 km netweork of escape routes north koreans use to escape the regime. Reduced DMZ Anbyon Plains, Crane restoration project NK DMZ according to 1953 Armistice Special Military Region Cheorwon Plains, Crane restoration project SK Rivers Landmines Kijong-Dong/Peace Village TRANSGRESSIONS, FLOWS, A Borders are always contaminated, transgresses, mutated and circumvented by eco
Northern Limit Line 38TH Parallel DML Southern Limit Line Civilian Control Line 4 Cheorwon, Gangwon Yeoncheon, Gyeonggi Imjingak, Paju Daesung-Dong/Freedom Village 1 K Mt. Kumgang ResMNooortrrtehtKhoarne2a6n,s000 2 3 Han River Estuaryd, eSfheacrteodrswnaotwerlwivainyg 4 in South Korea. Kaesong Industrial Complex AND MUTATIONS OF THE DMZ ological, economical, political and military ux re ecting the desire of the collective.
North 38TH Parallel South 38TH PARALLEL // The 38th Parallel line intersects the present DML at coordinates 37.98649
h The line of latitude 38 degrees North (38° N) was chosen in 1945 by the USA and USSR as a convenient borderline for their divided military occupation of the Korean peninsula. Under this divided occupation, Korea rapidly developed two ideologically di erent regimes, a socialist state in the North and a liberal state in the South. Their con ict culminated in the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950. h /DMZ INTERSECTION 97,126.774764, Jindong-myeon, Paju-si, Gyeonggi-do North/South Korea.
22000m LWOBCP Farmland 33000m Eutrophic Chasmophytes 44000m Mesotrophic VUBCP 55000m Chasmophytes Mesotrophic 66000m Corridor Mountain 77000m Forest LVUBCP 88000m Farmland Eutrophic 99000m Mesotrophic River 99000m UBC Farmland 38TH PARALLEL//EAST-WEST//CULTURA 110000m Eutrophic Mesotrophic The underlying structure and physical form of the land surface. Derived fro 121000m EUBC River 132000m Farmland Eutrophic 143000m EUBCUr River 154000m Farmland Eutrophic 1650 DUBC River Eutrophic Mesotrophic DUBC Farmland Meso-oligotrophic Chasmophytes DUBC Farmland Meso-oligotrophic Chasmophytes VDUBC Corridor Meso-oligotrophic Chasmophytes Eutrophic VUBCUr Corridor Meso-oligotrophic Chasmophytes Eutrophic VUBCUr Corridor Meso-oligotrophic Chasmophytes Eutrophic WVLUB Farmland Meso-oligotrophic Chasmophytes Eutrophic River WVLUB Farmland Chasmophytes Eutrophic River Butte WVLUB Farmland
Chasmophytes Eutrophic River Butte WVLUB Farmland Chasmophytes Eutrophic River Butte WVLUB Farmland Chasmophytes Eutrophic River Butte VLHBC Farmland Chasmophytes Butte LURHBO LURHBOP River LUVRHBOP LURHBOP Farmland River LUVRHBOP- Farmland River LURHBOPUr Farmland LURHBOPUr Farmland LURHBOP Farmland River LURHBOP Farmland LURHBOP Farmland LWUBPUr 000m 176000m 187000m 198000m 209000m 220000m 231000m 242000m 253000m 264000m 275000m 286000m 297000m 308000m 319000m Cultural pattern Landcover Physiography A Ancient woods W Wetland H High hills E Wooded - estateland D Health & Moorland U Low hills S Wooded - secondary L Chalk & Limestone V Upland vales & valleys D Dispersed unwooded B Other Light Land R Intermediate N Nucleated unwooded C Clayland L Lowlands W Wetland/waste P Other Heavy Land O Unsettled/open land Military Demarcation Line 38th Parallel Line AL PATTERN, LAND COVER, PHYSIOGRAPHY om interpretation of the relationship between geological and contour data.
Cement Slot, Kunsthalle, Bern, Switzerland, 30x 12 x 6”, March 1969. The cathedral personi es much that corrodes art. Art has been subjected to thousands of years of utility (magic), justi cation (religion) and decoration (architecture). The most solid thing about the church is that it rests upon the ground. It is based and immovable. Art ts into this environment like the subservient double. Utilitarian nuances still pervade the contemporary dialogue. Sixty-eight tons granite mass being lifted on a double-goose lo-boy transport. Sierra Mountains, Nevada. The project involved two cranes, one ladder, four transports and four ready-mix cement trucks. Sixty-eight tons granite x 4’ mass, 42 x 11 x 13’ d The Sierra faulted vertical all the same colour. Isolated Mass/Circum ex, Massacre Dry Lake, Nevada, 120 x 12’, September 1968. The intrusive, opaque objects refer to itself. Six tons of earth was displaced, making a one-foot wide trench, around 120 feet long, with the loop being 12 feet in diameter. Munich Depression, 1000 -ton displacem 100’ diameter, 15’ deep, Munich, April 196 On a clear day the Alps could be seen 60 mi distant, behind the depression. The pervasiv dominance of architecture extended all the into the eld. In the end the architects requisitioned the land, lled the depression erected a tangible, utilitarian object. Line drawing, crayon on painted material 35 x 2½. The drawing was the only object exhibited in the Heiner Friedrich Gallery, Munich, during the 1969 exhibition. MICHAEL Michael Heizer has rede ned sculpture in terms of size, mass, gesture, and process. A p with earth-moving equipment, which he be LAND
e mass in cement depression, Silver Springs, Nevada, 22 x 11 The matchsticks were employed as a dispersing depression. device. They were dropped from two feet above lly on the eastern side. The granite, cement and thermal clay are a sheet of paper and tapped down, the photograph of this dispersal became the ment, drawing for dissipate. (matches are always 69. applied disintegrative tasks; the original drawing iles could catch re at any time). ve way Dissipate, Black Rock Desert, Nevada, 45 x 50 area: each liner n and 144 x 12 x 0 x 12”, August 1968. There is no longer any photo that even loosely describes this work. As the physical deteriorates, the abstract proliferates, exchanging points of view. L HEIZER pioneer of Land Art, he is renowned for awe-inspiring sculptures and earthworks made egan creating in the American West in 1967. D ART
A line made by walking 1967 This photograph shows a straight line of trampled grass receding towards tall bushes or trees at the far side of what appears to be a eld. I started working outside using natural materials like grass and water, and this evolved into the idea of making a sculpture by walking … My rst work made by walking, in 1967, was a straight line in a grass eld, which was also my own path, going ‘nowhere’. The work documents an action by Richard Long – the creation of a transient line in nature made by repeat- edly walking back and forth in a grassy eld – which he then photographed from an angle at which the sunlight made the line particularly visible. Long has described how, in June 1967, he took a train from London’s Waterloo station heading southeast, disembarked after about twenty miles and found the featureless eld that was to become the site of A Line Made by Walking. Working outside the walls of the gallery in the expanded space of the real world, he WALTER DE MARIA Art as a formal and holistic description of the real space and experience of landsca abstracted LAND
The Vertical Earth Kilometer, 1977 The Vertical Earth Kilometre is a one-kilometre long brass rod, two inches in diameter, that has been drilled into Friedrichsplatz Park in Kassel, Germany. The rod’s circular top, which is ush with the earth’s surface, is framed by a two-meter square plate of red sandstone. This work is relegated to the realm of imagination. The radically reduced visual presence of the hidden rod is meant to prompt us to re ect on the Earth and its place in the universe. It may also be interpreted as a symbolic act of restoring a valuable metal to the exploited Earth. The Broken Kilometer, 1979 The Broken Kilometre is the companion piece to De Maria's 1977 Vertical Earth Kilometre. The Broken Kilometre 1979, located at 393 West Broadway in New York City, is composed of 500 highly polished, round, solid brass rods, each measuring two meters in length and ve centimetres (two inches) in diameter. The 500 rods are placed in ve parallel rows of 100 rods each. The sculpture weighs 18 3/4 tons and would measure 3,280 feet if all the elements were laid end-to-end. Each rod is placed such that the spaces between the rods increase by 5mm with each consecutive space, from front to back; the rst two rods of each row are placed 80mm apart, the last two rods are placed 570 mm apart. Metal halide stadium lights illuminate the work which is 45 feet wide and 125 feet long. Image: The Broken Kilometer, 1979. 500 solid brass rods, 2 (dia.) x 783⁄4 inches each; 45 x 125 feet overall. Long-term installation at Dia Art Foundation, 393 West Broadway, New York City. Photo: John Abbott A//RICHARD LONG ape and its most elemental materials. Themes at play address the idea of unseen or d distance. D ART
Retraced by way of incision The 38th parallel line incision departs the means of twin concrete curbs. The peninsula a super-surface upon which the line in ma unmarked where hindered by the terr concrete curb elements measure 1m in len 0.3mx 0.3m in section. Intervent The earth tion. The the placem may dete proliferate Retraced by way of incision 38th parallel line retraced by way of incision wound- ing the earth with the events of the past. The boarder remains permanent at ground level, situated by twin walls that cannot be crossed. Transgression happen deep beneath the ground surface. And the atmos- phere above. The birds do not pay much attention to the walls. 38TH PARALLEL //AP The proposed interventions inhabit the rich territory between two ideologica footp
e site by is treated arked and rain. The ngth and tion deteriorates, the abstract proliferate h is excavated for the full extent of the inser- negative becomes a double-negative with ment of magni cent voids. The intervention eriorate, but the abstract with continue to e. PPLIED INTERPOSITIONS al positions, namely that of making monument or conversely, of leaving only prints.
38TH PARALLEL//SEA
A OF JAPAN APPROACH
38TH PARALLEL DEMARCATI
ION THROUGH THE LANDSCAPE
38TH PARALLEL//IN-L
LOCATION PERSPECTIVE
38TH PARALLEL/
//NORTH ENTRANCE
38TH PARALLEL//
/DML INTERSECTION
DML PASSAGE LEADING TO
O NORTH KOREA TERRITORY
38TH PARALLEL//SO
OUTH ENTRANCE//EXIT
PASSAGE LEADING TO S
SOUTH KOREA TERRITORY
38TH PARALLE
EL//SOUTH//VOID
38TH PARALLEL//SO
OUTH KOREA TERRITORY
1. North Korea entrance 2. 38th Parallel North incision void 3. Void 4. South Korea territory 5. Void 6. North Korea exit 7. DML boarder walls 1 2 5 6 3 7 4 PLAN //LEVEL -0
14 13 12 11 10 9 8 8. South Korea entrance 9. 38th Parallel North incision void 10. Void 11. North Korea territory 12. Void 13. South Korea exit 14. DML boarder walls 00 //SCALE 1:300
PLAN //LEVEL -0
01 //SCALE 1:300
PLAN //LEVEL -0
02 //SCALE 1:300
PLAN //LEVEL -0
03 //SCALE 1:300
PLAN //LEVEL -0
04 //SCALE 1:300
SECTION // NORTH The top storey is South-Korea accessible territory. The open void provides south-Korea this territory is entirely ina
H KOREA TERRITORY an national temporary refuge upon the North-Korean soil. The passageway leading to accessible by North-Korea.
SECTION// SOUTH K The top storey is North-Korea accessible territory. The open void provides North-Korea this territory is entirely ina
KOREA TERRITORY an national temporary refuge upon the South-Korean soil. The passageway leading to accessible by South-Korea.
SECTION//38TH PARALL At this intersection, the 38th Parallel meets DML. At the intersection, North Koreans g dividing wall allows for h
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