Exhibition view: Kunsthal Charlottenborg. Photo by David Stjernholm

TALE OF ONE OR MANY MOUNTAINS, 2017

HD video, color with sound, 21:52 min., HD video, color with sound, 11:39 min archive, 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 central to both Manchu and Korean cosmology and 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.