Sometimes, interests in one place transform the very nature of the place. It is a recent example easily to be found that a place becomes a typical commercial area with no time to notice. This kind of transformation is caused by a psychological relationship between a place and people. Therefore it is quite necessary for a more desirable development of the place to broaden an understanding of what the place really is through various aspects of actual experience.

Samcheongdong project starts from here and is extended to an exhibition titled 'InsideOutside'. The exhibition is not for providing a visitor with a typical passive way of seeing, but for giving an opportunity of active participation to collect precious memories and various images through multimedia equipment and installation. It is expected to produce a fertile imagination on one place.

The title, InsideOutside , makes this intention clear. Not like 'White Cube' displaying an accomplished work of an artist, the exhibition merely presents a visitor with a few frames and clues. Visitors without prejudice are able to explore fresh ways of seeing a particular space.

Samcheongdong well suited for the exhibition is a highly interesting place where Hanok , Korean traditional houses, are still available for view in the heart of Seoul. It is also surrounded by a wide range of tourist attractions. Hanok in Samcheongdong have been brought public attention as traditional heritage to preserve. Its unique and antique atmosphere is also definitely worth visiting. It is the popular place for the young as well as the old who have a certain amount of nostalgia for the good old days in Baekma or Jangheung . What makes the place more attractive is lively people who are actually living there and make the place in real.

Nowadays Samcheongdong where is still keeping strong traditional atmosphere is undergoing rapid changes. Ones with money or new dreams are replacing the others who once sought quiet spaces to work or live. Buildings have been closed, torn down and rebuilt repeatedly within a month or even a week. Even though changes are not always agreeable, it is a clear evidence of existing strong currents between inside and outside of Samcheongdong.

There is no way to stop the place from being typified and commercialized , however the exhibition would like to raise the issues of ways of using the place and find an appropriate solution by adopting the values of arts on the issues.

<written by Sang-kyu Kim>

How clear the boundary between the inside and the outside?

Does a door or window belong to the inside or outside?

What exists beyond the wall or the fence?

A door without the wall can be considered a door?

If objects in the inside come outside, are they rendered useless?

Or do they create new meaning?

As such, the exhibition [Inside & Outside] is designed to serve as an opportunity to raise a question about the correlation of the space, boundary of space, door, window, fence and wall - a linking point of spaces, and the relations between the inside and outside.

Differentiating from existing exhibitions normally presented inside the gallery, we designed the work in which urban landscape is surrounded as a framework on the streets of Samcheongdong so that it looks like a scene inside the stage, and the light illuminating the wall of the street is trapped by covering it with the box upside down. The light trapped inside the box throws funny shadow produced by the holes of the box instead of dazzling light.

Likewise, the question is also raised; whether a door built in the vast expanse of the plain where there is no wall or closed space or a door of the furniture can serve as a door, even though they are doors only in name? The existence of such doors in open space(they are close to the word "gate" than "door" in English) - might be considered as simple imagination for fun) is symbolic, and even now they are being used as a mark of boundary in many places of the world. Examples include symbolic doors in the Arab region and the entrances of our cities that were now replaced by toll gates. Such entrances are shaped like a group of doors rather than a single door, and the "Existence of Door", one of the works exhibited in the Samcheongdong raises a question on the existence of the door combining these two characteristics of the door.

Therefore, doors in the exhibition cry out, "I am a door, humble as I am", standing alone in open space or lying on the floor. Also the work was designed that looks like doors peeping people through the door on the wall built up to avoid people's eyes.

If doors are as such, how about walls or fences? "Infinity" designed by Department of Visual Design of the Inha University employed infinite possibility of Samcheongdong to embody infinity, and imitated the works done by Swiss artist, Felice Varini who is active in France. Spaces are linked into one frame by binding unrelated spaces using visualization. At the same time, slight change of angle scatters the frame into individual color.

Also, works are designed to visually expand the space of a closed wall by using reflective nature of the mirror, and put the "frame" on the scribbles written by children thereby giving a chance to think of the roles of the frame for the artistic works - a role as the boundary between artistic space and actual space.

In addition, works are designed in which meaningless empty space turns into children's playground by drawing a few simple lines. While previous examples approaches limited, divisive and exclusive nature of the frame dividing the inside and the outside from critical perspective, the frameworks of the playground creates positive "inside" for children.

Walking in the street of Samcheongdong along the wall of JeongDok Library on the right side, you will face the uphill beautifully overlooking the Mountain Bukhan. You will experience a new insight when looking such scenery through the small frame. In other words, the works are designed to show the difference between the scenery through photographers' angle that modern people are used to and actual scenery.

When it comes to the approach to the relations between the inside and outside, works are prepared so that we can see reversely the relations between the inside and the outside other than works employing element of space that creates boundaries such as doors, windows, walls or fences. Sofas, televisions, and carpets that are used to decorate the space defined as indoor are placed on the streets or cozy and feminine benches are decorated on the street going beyond the concept of "street furniture."

As such, the street exhibition in Smacheongdong titled [Inside & Outside] collected works through which we can understand that the existence of door and frame can work greatly as a visual element, going beyond just being a material element. The exhibition is designed to show that distinction of space made by the door and frame - inside and outside - can change physically and visually any time, and such distinction of space can be an issue of concept resided in people's head.

<Written by Soyeong Park >