TALE OF ONE OR MANY MOUNTAINS, 2017
HD video. Color. Stereo sound, 19:39 min.
Sometimes exhibited with archive and painting. Dimensions and constellation variable
There is a sacred mountain that is divided between what is today North Korea and China. An invisible borderline cuts across its crater lake at the peak and splits the mountain in two. The active volcanic mountain is known as Baekdusan in South and North Korea, while in Chinese people refer to it as Changbaishan and in Manchu, it is known as Sanggiyan Mountains. Being central to both Manchu and Korean cosmology and nation-building, a multitude of cultural representations speak to its imaginary proportions. Through North Korean, South Korean, Manchu, Chinese and English narratives, Tale of One or Many Mountains presents some of the numerous stories that surround the mountain. Following the rivers that emerge from it and that constitute a liquid border between China and North Korea, Tale of One or Many Mountains is also a meditation on the vast and contested borderlands of Northeast Asia and enduring cross-border activities. At the same time, the mountain itself testifies to deep time. It precedes the establishment of nation-state boundaries and cultural projections. Both encompassing and uncompromising, the mountain becomes a metaphor for the current state of affairs in the region. Although volcanic activity was recently measured at the mountain, it lies for the moment dormant, yet it is ever transforming.
Tale of One or Many Mountains, video stills
Tale of One or Many Mountains - video excerpt
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Directed, filmed, and edited by: Jane Jin Kaisen. Voices: Jane Jin Kaisen, Ma Sun Hee, Meng Xianxiao, Young Sun Oh. Audio recording of Manchu cosmology: Rowena Li. Color grading: Guston Sondin-Kung. Research assistance: Shiqi Lin. Haeseo Kim, Hayeon Heather Kim. Translation: Jungweon Mok