demining the DMZspring 2022, GSAPP ADV. Studio with Mark Waisutaprojects
DEMINING THE DMZ
At the conclusion of World War II, the Korean Peninsula was freed from Japanese colonial rule and divided along the 38th parallel. What began as a provisional division ultimately became the front line of the Korean War, and the staging ground for the larger geopolitical forces in play during the Cold War era with China and the Soviet Union supporting the North, the United States and a United Nations coalition supporting the South. The war, which is technically ongoing, as neither side signed an official peace treaty, permanently transformed the landscape of the Korean Peninsula.
TOXIC LANDSCAPE
A reunification of the two Koreas or the possibility of peace must confront a landscape materially and geopolitically transformed by war. The Demilitarized Zone (the DMZ) is the 250 kilometer long and 4 kilometer-wide buffer zone that separates North and South Korea, and contains an estimated 1 to 2 million undetonated land mines. The process of detecting and removing landmines is extremely dangerous and time consuming, making even the fantasy of reunification a logistical nightmare.
TRUCE VILLAGE
Over the decades of uneasy peace, the DMZ has become the site of many strange geopolitical dances. The Panmunjom is a UN controlled area along the DMZ that straddles the border of North and South Korea with a building that is divided in half by the border, where North and South Korean leaders can meet, always watched on both sides by soldiers and camera crews.
WATCH ME WATCH YOU
These conditions have turned the DMZ into a strange site of “watching you watching me” across the 4 kilometer wide mine ridden landscape. With strict control over who and what is allowed to cross over to the other side, both sides are most often monitoring each other from a 4 km distance.