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West Korean & East Korean
Friche la Belle de Mai, Marseille, FR
Video HaYoung korean borders frontiers
Video HaYoung korean borders frontiers
Video HaYoung korean borders frontiers
Video HaYoung korean borders frontiers
Video HaYoung korean borders frontiers
Video HaYoung korean borders frontiers
Video HaYoung korean borders frontiers
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West Korean & East Korean is a project that subverts the social gaze that seeks to define individuals by their nationality and region. Inspired by the question people often ask even before knowing the artist’s name — "South or North?" — HaYoung recalls once answering, "I'm from the East." Thus, two fictional characters emerge: the West Korean and the East Korean. These figures harbor resentment toward each other — not merely emotional conflict, but an act of desire: the longing to reclaim a missing part of oneself through the other.

The artist reinterprets the French expression "je t’en veux", stripping it of its accusatory tone to make it synonymous with "I want a part of you that I am missing." This reading is articulated around the concept of self-cannibalism, exploring the incompleteness of identity and the yearning to reconstruct it. Thus, HaYoung consumes themself, attempting to embrace a missing other-self within. This process echoes the myth of Erysichthon, the Greek king condemned by Demeter to eternal hunger, driving him to devour himself until nothing remained but the clattering of his teeth.


The landscape suddenly shifts, as if folding in on itself, blurring perceptions and defying its own borders.

West Korean & East Korean, 2018
VIDEO, SOUND, 2’57”

EXHIBITION NAROK, Friche la Belle de Mai, Marseille, FR, 2021
CURATOR Pakito Bolino

STILLS FROM THE VIDEO: © HAYOUNG