Guest + Host = Ghost
Installation | Constructing a “Korean Space” in “Roman World”
Installation | Constructing a “Korean Space” in “Roman World”
Rome, Italy
In Collaboration with Iris Kim and Se Young Park (Painter)
In Collaboration with Iris Kim and Se Young Park (Painter)
The project is a pavilion that houses and exhibits several pieces by the artist, Se Young Park. Se young’s work expresses her memories of and experiences within Rome and with Roman gastronomy through the lens of a Korean. She uses Korean cultural motifs and rituals in her representations of her memories of Rome. The artist and the architects both agreed to frame the following exhibition under Marcel Duchamp’s piece, A Guest + A Host = A Ghost. This artwork is a play on words on three levels: definitional, contextual, and functional.
The built pavilion attempts to redefine these three different types of puns. At the definitional level, Duchamp defines that a guest + a host = a ghost through a play on words. Gue (GUEst) + Ho (HOst) + ST(gueST, hoST) creates the word ghost. The project begins by looking at the etymology of the words guest and host. Both words have the pie root ghos-ti which make that mathematical sequence true. Contextually, this exhibition was intended to greet the hosts (locals of Rome) and share the experiences of the guests (three Korean students) within the hosts’ city. On a functional level, the project creates a new space within the guest’s studio space, using only found materials from local stores and within the studio, further extending the guest-host relationship. We use the materials of and found within Rome to express elements of Rome from a Korean’s perspective. The work uses Roman tools to create Korean forms for the Roman people. And thus, there is an ambiguity that occurs with the choice and use of materials.