Mimi Youn is a visual artist who works and lives in Seoul. She reconstructs images from pieces of archive photographs which she has been collecting and donated photos from years ago. Recently, she became interested in the relationship between photography and history, using in her work old photographs made in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Korea. Youn believes photographs do not tell the truth of history as it is, but they make us think about the multiple hidden layers She likes to explore the way photography is linked to memories and lives. Youn collected photographs from the past like an archaeologist. After that, she disassembled and recombined them in her own way to create an imaginary museum.
At GlogauAIR, she collected photographs from Berlin and border areas about the time of Germany’s separation. War, division, and unification are Germany’s past, but it’s the present and future in Korea. During her virtual residency, she cut, composed, and collaged photographs of sculptures and monuments from stock and archival images found on the Internet referencing the times of German division with. She tried to connect time and spaces and build up a new perspective by using the traces and records of the past. Youn reminds us that conflict, vigilance and confrontation are still ongoing issues.