A house is, in physical terms, a relatively small space made up of rectangular structures: windows, and doors. For the people who live inside it, however, it is also a vessel that holds family history, personal memories, and emotions. The interior space of Project Space ZIP, created by renovating a Western-style house in Sinsa-dong, Gangnam, forms an intriguing exhibition venue filled with traces left behind by what was once a private home. As a family’s living space was transformed into a gallery open to the public, some parts were roughly torn away and finished with cement, while other areas still clearly preserve the intimate traces of the house as a private space.
夜景(Night View) – Transparent Strangeness
In a dark exhibition space, models of a brightly lit convenience store, clothing shops, and buildings are installed. Small video cameras are placed both inside and outside the architectural models. The cameras are either fixed or slowly rotating, filming the interior of the model spaces, other models seen through the windows, and the visitors in the gallery.
Through the bright interiors and transparent glass walls, viewers can look into the models and see the cameras moving inside. However, because of the contrast between the bright interior and the dark exterior, the cameras inside have difficulty seeing outside. Instead, the interior lighting reflects off the glass walls, capturing reflections of the interior space and the cameras themselves. If there is another bright space outside the glass wall, the camera can then see that light-filled space beyond the reflections.
The architectural models in the dark space reflect each other’s light, distorting the sense of real space. As these reflections repeat, it becomes unclear where the light seen through the glass walls actually comes from. The contrast between inside and outside light, combined with reflections on glass, blocks direct vision and creates an atmosphere different from enclosed interiors made of solid walls.
Strange Visit
Visitors of Project Space Zip encounter video footage captured by cameras installed inside the architectural model. In the dark exhibition space, they see the brightly lit, transparent, and unfamiliar interior of the model, and discover themselves within the images.
Through the model’s enclosed structure and the camera’s gaze that communicates the interior to the outside, the work expresses the tension that arises when the deeply private domain symbolized by a “house” meets others in a social space. The experience of a strange visit begins the moment visitors step into Project Space Zip.
