KIM Woojin

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KIM Woojin

Participating Project	International Creator Residency Program
Activity Based	Seoul
City / Place stayed	Tokyo
Period	2024.1 - 2024.3

Purpose of the residency

I will research about minority language in Japan and Japanese language policy change, and I will collect individuals’ memories about that. Even though the endangered language is being in current, it is hard to say that it will exist in near future. We can comment that they are in ghost stage. In terms of literature and image research, I will collect that with the keywords, ghost. Due to aging and urban-oriented policies, young people move to cities, thus far away country towns and houses becoming ghost. The process is like certain languages becoming disappearing. I would like to collect stories and images from that as a metaphor. As digital world, ocean of information is expanding, language in digital extinction is getting serious. Most linguists comment that even major languages are not free from that. To think about near future about language and Asia, I will research that, as well.

Plan during the residency

• Research about Ainu language
• Research about Ryukyuan language focusing on Okinawan language
• Research about disappearing town in Japan
• Collecting Japanese folktale/ Collecting images
• Open studio/ exhibition

Activities during the residency

During the time at TOKAS, I researched about endangered languages in Japan, focusing on Ainu language and Uchina-guchi (Ryukyu language). Even though the endangered language is being in current, it is hard to say that it will exist in near future. We can say that they are in a ghost stage. At TOKAS, my project has been conducted with the keywords: Ghost, stage, and cloud. For that, I researched those languages by reading materials and meeting people. And then I made questionnaires and conducted interviews with people who have any memories about Ainu and Uchina-guchi in Tokyo, Hokkaido, and Okinawa.

Outcome of the residency

In terms of a short plan, I will create three new video installation works, with interviews on minority languages in Japan that I conducted while I stayed at TOKAS. For the result exhibition, I plan to produce two video installation series of works with the same format. Additionally, the project with the keyword ‘reconstruction’ will be further researched to develop a new work. The project conducted in Japan is not a temporary one. Based on the project conducted in Japan, I aim to expand the project to other Asian countries such as Indonesia and East Timor. I plan to further research directions in which I can critically talk about the current Asia from an Asian perspective.

Creator Information