Photography:
Seo Jang Hyun

Writer:
Seo Jang Hyun

There are a lot of local foundations, namely Busan Creative Community Foundation, and one of them used to run Songjeong Station, which is no more a station now but a gallery. They did a sloppy job, not being able to reflect how the community is like. Some of the local residents wanted to run it themselves. Although Songjeong is known for surfing in Korea, people living there are not necessarily fond of it. On the other hand, when most of the people from outside the community think of the place, they think about surfing. You can’t deny how things actually are.

Since I am the head of the Korea Surfing Association and I know a few respectable people in the neighborhood, they contacted me for help. “Hey, let’s do some business together. BCCF is running Songjeong Station, but we’re going to offer to run it instead.” So I did some case-studies of seaside towns overseas known for surfing: how some of the buildings and venues there are utilized. I also prepared the presentation materials. I continued to do that for 2 to 3 years.

Take a look at Trestles, California for example. The place is wellknown for the railroad there, so they make a trophy out of the railway for the Trestles Surf Competition. It’s about getting the features of the town and combining them with surfing. But the elder citizens are not familiar with the idea. Doing that kind of work together eventually led us to founding a residents’ community called Padosori Songjeong, for running Songjeong Station together. It gained momentum, and we earned the rights to run the station while BCCF stepped out. Again, however, the elderlies didn’t exactly have a job cut out for them for the project.

But one of them, born and raised in Songjeong, was a metal worker, so it was decided we’d organize his exhibition. Then it was my turn to come up with something trendy, not necessarily surfing. That’s how I began this exhibition.

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