Das Dritte Land
Seok Hyun Han, Seunghwoe Kim
23.05. 2019 - 30.04.2023
Matthäikirchplatz, Beriln-Kulturforum

In Han Seok Hyun and Kim Seung Hwoe’s garden Das Dritte Land (The Third Land), plants native to North and South Korea grow side by side on foreign soil, forming a fleeting utopian landscape. Here, an immovable political reality meets an imagined and hopeful future. Inspired by Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopia, the garden becomes a “third space” in which geographical and political divisions are temporarily suspended through nature.

The work is deeply rooted in jingyeong sansuhwa (“true-view landscape painting”), pioneered during the Joseon period by Jeong Seon (1676–1759). Rather than reproducing idealized Chinese landscapes, Jeong Seon captured the actual topography, light, and character of Korean places. Both artists explicitly reference Jeong Seon’s masterpiece Inwang jesaekdo (1751), with its dark rock formations, drifting mist, and dramatic ink contrasts. Das Dritte Land translates this poetic atmosphere into a living installation modeled after the Baekdu-daegan—the continuous mountain chain that physically spans both North and South Korea. White wildflowers native to both sides of the peninsula, symbolic peaks sculpted from black basalt stones, and rising water vapor serve as the core elements whose interplay brings this traditional ink-and-wash landscape vividly to life.

By bringing classical Korean landscape painting into dialogue with the reality of a divided peninsula, the artists transform geopolitical separation into a shared sensory experience. Visitors can move through a space that is both real and surreal, suggesting that reconciliation may begin through embodied encounters with nature.