A 77-meter scroll created by a Korean activist art collective in 1989 has been digitally restored as part of an exhibition at Gwangju Media Art Platform called “The Gap Within the Whole.” The scroll depicts 100 years of the struggle for democracy in Korea, from Japanese colonialism to U.S. imperialism to declarations of martial law.
Background
The banner was created by the National Federation of the National and People’s Art Movement, a federation of grassroots movements of activists and artists in Korea. It was destroyed in 1989 after touring 19 locations in the country, including universities and public plazas.
The physical scroll’s last stop was in June of 1989, at an outdoor theater at Hanyang University, where 8,000 riot police stormed the campus and threw the 11 panels into a pile, along with thousands of artworks the federation had created on site that week. They set fire to the pile, then destroyed the ashes that remained.
Restoration
The digital restoration of the banner was made possible by art historian Choi Yeol, who took slide photographs of each of the panels on the first day of the tour. The panels depict solidarity among peasant farmers, workers, and students, as well as the movement against the Yushin Constitution of the 1970s.
The banner also illustrates the reunification of North and South Korea, an ambition whose definition of “success” changes as the years go on. The exhibition at Gwangju Media Art Platform runs through July 15th, 2026.
Original reporting: New Haven Independent — read the source article.
