December 12 – 19, 2015

1, Dorim-ro 128ga-gil, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul

The artist Ha Sangcheol overturns the underground space of Mullae-dong, where the 2015 7½ Project took place as an ‘object to make artworks function’, not as a gallery space to just showcase the works. The space for the 2015 7½ Project was located in the center of the place where the ironworks are concentrated in Mullae-dong, Seoul, and various projects including the exhibitions that were carried out during the year around this place. An exhibition has a spatial meaning that shows art(s)works. However, we repeatedly ask how the ‘form’ of an ‘exhibition’ is used in contemporary art, what the exhibition is aiming for, and what is the ultimate purpose of the exhibition. Through the project of Ha Sangcheol, I throw a question again. He interpreted the exhibition space given to him for this project as a working tool and especially thought about what the exhibition means in the context of the 7½ Project. So, he decided to use Mullae-dong’s 7½ space itself as an object for his work, which would not be welcomed by the original residents for any reason due to the nature of this place. In this way, the material given to the artist for this project was ‘space’. The artist used some of the characteristics of this space as his materials. First, he controls the flow of electricity in order for the space to function. And he used the sound that emanates from a space like a soundbox. He then reorganized the electrical flow of space into a converted SOS signal according to the International Morse Code through coding. The electricity flow generated the signal of • • • (S) – – – (O) • • • (S) by using a lighting fixture installed in the space.

Consequently, Ha Sangcheol made the 7½ space of Mullae-dong function as his own work, and not as an ‘exhibition area’. The ceiling of the 7½ space has a small hole, which is connected to the entrance floor of a place named ‘Clover Metals’ Thus, it means that there is a hole through the ceiling of the underground space (the 7½ Project venue) and the bottom of the ground floor (Clover Metals), which looks like a device used for spying on the ground from an underground tunnel, or like the shape of the entrance to a tank, for which I imagine a tank in disguise popping out from the underground at any time. After all, the iron plate covering this hole looks intact during the business hours of ‘Clover Metals’, but when the store is closed, the bottom plate cannot be opened because it is pressed by the shutter. Also, only half of the uncovered plates are visible from the outside. We cannot tell why these holes are here and why they are covered with iron plates, but for many years the underground area has been filled with fumes and dust seeping down through the holes, and the noise from the outside traveled through here and resonated in the underground space. Ha Sungcheol’s work which controls the physical characteristics of the space and the electric flow in the underground space physically strikes the iron plates installed in the ceiling hole connected to the ground with the light, and the sound generated there is transmitted to not only the audience who have visited the underground space but also to people walking on the street. And the space converted into an object now sends out repeated signals. A wordless message of SOS formalizes the space itself by contrasting darkness and light, and silence and sound. But we are left to wonder, who is the recipient? The exhibition title ‘nan’ is a combination of English letters ‘SOS (‘SOS’ to be exact)’ typed on Korean keyboards; this combination of Korean letters does not even possess any accidental meaning.

‘SOS’ is the worldwide distress signal. One interesting fact at this point is that SOS is a meaningless sign. Also, the Morse Code is rarely used these days due to the development of means of communication, but SOS is a sign derived from the Morse Code. The first distress signal after the invention of the Morse Code was ‘CQD’. (a combined signal of the pronunciation of ‘sécu’ short for the French word ‘sécurité’ and ‘distress’) But because the Morse Code for CDQ is in the form of – • – • (C) – – • – (Q) – • • (D), there would be difficulties in repeating both the transmission and reception in an emergency. Therefore, SOS was proposed as a solution. The sign of SOS takes the form of • • • (S) – – – (O) • • • (S), and it is easy for anyone to remember. Also, in the repeated signal, we feel the rhythm. The SOS, created only because it was easy to decipher, eventually became the world’s common distress signal. In other words, the CDQ converted from content to format has died out, whereas the SOS whose format itself became content has survived. Whether it is created or not, the meaningless message(language) constantly generates (im)possible points of meaning. ‘Nan’ is an error, and yet it functions in one way. The exhibition space converted to ‘Nan’ is an error, which becomes a tool to make the work function, or it will be recognized that it has originally functioned as an error.