SWEEPING THE FOREST FLOOR, 2020
Single-channel HD video. Stereo sound. 25:05 min.
Sweeping the Forest Floor shows the head of a landmine detector moving through a dense landscape with hectic, probing movements. The perspective is low, and the landmine detector gets repeatedly entangled in the forest floor. On several occasions, a mine is found and dug up by a person in camouflage gear. Filmed as a single, uninterrupted shot, the video was created by mounting a camcorder directly onto a mine detector rod. It was filmed in South Korea close to the North Korean border during one of Kaisen’s stays inside the Civilian Control Line, an additional buffer zone of the Korean Demilitarised Zone – the 250 km long and 4 km wide area that forms the border between North Korea and South Korea. Here, the artist followed a number of activists working to detect and clear away mines in the area, which is also being farmed by civilians. Mining experts believe that 1–1.2 million mines have been buried on the South Korean side by South Korean and US military.
Sweeping the Forest Floor, video excerpt
