Hamel Residency EP.1, 2020-2021

Curatorial team: Soyoun Kim, Donghwan Kam, Sooji Lee
Participating artists: Lotte van Greijin, Bert Scholten, Chihchung Chang, Bangjoo Kim

funded by Stimuleringsfonds in Netherlands, Art Council Korea in South Korea

Hendrick Hamel, is known for the book 『Hamel's Journal and a Description of the Kingdom of Korea, 1653-1666』, was a bookkeeper and a sailor who worked for Dutch East India Company. In 1653, Hamel got on board the ship ‘De Sperwer(The Sparrowhawk) and arrived in Indonesia from the Netherlands. The ship was faced with a storm while heading for Japan by way of Taiwan. After the ship was wrecked and floated around, it reached off the coast of Jeju Island. Hamel and his crews were forced to go to Seoul, Gangjin and Yeosu, put into the military and labor work. By 1666, Hamel and some of his colleagues succeeded in escaping from the compelling hard work and they finally returned to their homeland via Japan. Hamel wrote his journal about the time in the detainment. His book is considered the first report about the Joseon dynasty written in the westerner’s view. It is well known to us through our history classes in school days. The Hamel Residency started in an attempt to fill the gap between history and today by using artistic imaginations. The main goal of this program is to enlarge the 17th Century’s legacy to today's boundary, not to let it just live there. Thus, we expect to generate an interesting distortion out of the meaningful context in the process.

‘The first Hamel Residency’ took place in July 2021. Beginning with the work from guide-writer Lotte, the artists from the Netherlands, Indonesia, Taiwan and Korea participated in this program. It took a relay form using the chronicle time within one month. The artists made the whole process individually and collectively by sharing their own works to the next individual. This process turned to a question of how can the restriction caused by this Covid-19 era connect today’s artists.