Movie profile

Pan mun jom

Pan Mun Jom (2013) goes further in the questioning on the fictional dimension of the DMZ (and of demarcations in general) by reducing to colour spots soldiers facing each other from both sides of the border… Who is who? Who is where? Where are we? As the shooting authorizations where cancelled following the 2013 North-Korean crisis, the video simulates the filming with a thermal imaging camera reproducing images at 37°C (98.6°F) – in other words, our body temperature. Hence, the abstraction achieved through scientific imaging (re)places on an equal stage the soldiers no matter what side they are on, and thus cancels the very notion of border.

Directed by Hayoun Kwon