キム・ウンジュ

Kim Eun Ju

This work is set in the sites of the May 18 Democratic Uprising, tracing the stories of bereaved families and survivors whose lives remain tied to these places. Since beginning the May Mothers project in 2011, the artist has created work in Gwangju for 15 years, exploring how memory persists within physical space.
Light functions here as both metaphor and method. It symbolizes hope and despair while suggesting how truth can be refracted, obscured, or distorted depending on context and intention. The Former Gwangju Army Hospital—now a designated historic site—treated both martial law soldiers and injured civilians, embodying the contradictions of that time. At the Former Gwangju Correctional Institution, citizens attempting to communicate the uprising to the outside world were unjustly killed and secretly buried. After the suppression of the movement, many who were subjected to military trials were imprisoned there, some never leaving alive.
For the wounded, for the families of those lost, and for the survivors who endured imprisonment, these are not merely “former” sites. They remain heavy with unresolved pain and memory.
In these photographs, light is not only a visual device but a way to connect people and places, evoking the emotional weight of that day. As Gwangju continues to build its identity around the legacy of May 18, the ruins and the still-unhealed lives of witnesses ask whether the historical values of the May 18 Democratic Uprising have truly been preserved. At a time when some still deny or distort this history, the work holds these unresolved realities in view.