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Tête08_04.mov 2018

I am looking for a model who is willing to urinate in a bathroom where a camera installed


2018
Sound︎ 17:11 min


“Dear all,

I am looking for a model who is willing to urinate in a bathroom where a camera is installed. (The recorded video will have blurred out the face! and I NEED YOUR HELP!!)

From October 1, 2018 to October 3, 2018 I will film in the bath- room of “Project Space” in Berlin. It will be photographed or
filmed at an angle of “illegal footage”, similar to the one shown
in the attached data (me from a test shoot in 2018) with all of the personal characteristics of the model blurred. During the exhibition period, we will only screen pre-recorded video and will not live stream. It will be paid in accordance with the Korean porn market’s pay, which is only 20-50 cents per shot. The project is intended to be a video work screened at a group exhibition in Berlin, Germany during October 5, 2018 to October 12, 2018.

Obviously, I will treat your help with great respect and if you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask so I can explain the details more and we can talk about it!

-

So, from that sentence alone, you can imagine that this is a bit difficult to start writing about. I am Yun Hye. This project is linked to the project titled ‘Definition and Collapse of Private Space’, which I have worked on in 2012 and 2013. The aim of the project is to depict one’s loss of personal space (on a short-term basis) as they enter and use a public toilet. This will be achieved by install- ing a camera under the sink of a public restroom within a general public building that will in turn take video of the subject (under the knee and foot) entering and using the “private” bathroom in public restroom. Return to current project,

As part of the group exhibition under the theme ‘Gone Sexual’, I am showing my work as a glimpse/question of moral standards of mankind, but only as depicted in Korean pornography.

I do not expect my work to be seen by hundreds of people, so I am not concerned with any compensation for myself. I hope to achieve the small satisfaction gained by 10 to 20 people stopping into the exhibition space, subsequently visiting the bathroom within the space, and coming to the realization that they were in the same place as the video. And I am curious to know that after this realization, will they wonder “Am I being filmed? Is someone watching me now?.” I hope that the person would feel some kind of emotion; anything from discomfort or anxiety, anger, disdain, or an inability to understand - this is part of the notes of the work I have planned.

I am in a society where even the minimum moral standard point in everyday life has collapsed. What can be done in a society where even something as private as a restroom has been compromised to the extent of potentially being seen everywhere? In Germany, where I work, hidden cameras, revenge porn, and the like are NOT seen as mainstream porn, but are instead quite taboo. Unfortu- nately, in Korea, this is not the case.

Korean porn, which is the sixth largest sex industry in the world, is mainly comprised of illegal footage taken by secret cameras(spy cams), revenge porn (an ex posting private videos), upskirts, etc. As seen in recent events, women are cognizant of this unfortunate industry and are even going to the streets in protest in their defense. Of course, it’s not so simple just to find and remove these cameras to ensure the basic human rights within a country. Ob- stacles always remain. While many people cry out loudly against those who consume illegal footage along with those who tolerate this behavior, I am aware that this is only a problem of modern times. When thinking about those who were victims and were in the streets defending their rights, I could not help but be moved to take my own action.

To put it personally: I grew up in 1991, the eldest daughter of
a man and a woman in an ordinary but slightly different, more bizarrely tangled house. My grandparents and family planned that I would be born a boy with the traditional destiny Sa-Ju “the most generous general man.” That is to say, I was not only born into the wrong sex, but under pressure that could not be overcome simply due to my sex. The second half of my name, “Jeong” (peaceful, calm), was intended to preserve my presumed “destiny” while also acknowledging my body as female. I have distinct and quite bitter memories of waiting out in the coldest of winters with my mother holding the door for my grandmother (who never favored me). My father always taught me that I am no different than a boy and that I should do whatever is necessary to conquer all the mountains and oceans of the whole country (which is honestly what to do with “child in a boy”). This teaching weighed a lot on me, so when I went to an all-female middle and high school, I felt immense pressure to succeed.

While at university, I was a departmental student representative, but was constantly berated by fellow male students who felt I had no right to have any leadership position. Furthermore, they made multiple actions to expel me from school due to their old-school conventions. In retrospect, it is clear that they were insecure and unable to understand that men are not the only intellectually capa- ble sex. I do not know. It certainly made me feel angry and help- less. Furthermore, as I was studying painting, along with so-called ‘philosophy’, I only read about wise and conceptual men. Women were never included. My boyfriend, who was in his early twenties, verbally abused me and threatened my physical safety, so thus we broke up. After that, I met a guy and was love-struck so I could
not even judge what was right. I once had dated with a so-called feminist, but when I tried to talk about female issues I’d related to on the internet, he’d felt uncomfortable and that made me also un- comfortable. When I was a child, I was molested by my acquaint- ance and when I told my mother, she insisted I was mistaken. It feels like it is no use saying that even after being sexually molested by boys in elementary school, I feel that no one understands me. It’s this feeling of being a terrorist: positioned in fear.

I wrote this personal story not to offend, as I cannot say it is only because of men that my life has been a struggle. I also wanted to tell you that I am among the tens of thousands of people who have grown up with sexism in this unusually sloping social structure, crying on the streets for someone to listen. While it was suggested to me to use pre-existing video for my exhibit, I find it more poign- ant to make the example current and alive. The ultimate goal of the project is to elicit personal emotions, rather than just instructing people about this awful Korean pornographic industry.

So I am looking for a model who is willing to urinate in a bathroom where a camera is installed. and i hope that i could find some peo- ple who would like to understand my work.”