Unmute Water Project
- ongoing collaborative research with Dianaband, Oro Minkyung, Solbi Jeon
Unmute Water Project is a sensory and research-based art project that begins with field research into Jeju Island’s groundwater, focusing on sensing and interpreting sounds, silences, and traces that lie beyond human hearing. Collaborating across disciplines such as sound/media art, literature, and visual anthropology, the project explores voices vulnerable to omission at the intersection of art, technology, and activism. Through exhibitions held at Gamjeo Gallery (2023) and Sanjicheon Gallery (2024), the project has shared its evolving process, with plans for continued collaboration among the participating artists. Ultimately, it seeks to foster “relational listening” and propose a listening community that transcends the boundaries between human and more-than-human beings.
Unmute Water Project는 제주 지하수에 대한 현장 리서치에서 출발하여, 인간의 청각으로는 인식할 수 없는 물의 소리, 침묵, 흔적을 감지하고 기록하는 시청각 예술 프로젝트이다. 사운드/미디어 아트, 문학, 시청각 인류학 등 다양한 분야의 예술가들이 참여하며, 예술과 기술, 사회운동이 교차하는 지점에서 소외되기 쉬운 존재들의 목소리를 감각적으로 수용하고자 한다. 2023년 감저갤러리 전시와 2024년 산지천갤러리 전시를 통해 프로젝트의 실험과 과정을 공유했고, 이후에도 지속적인 공동 리서치와 창작이 계획되어 있다. 이 프로젝트는 ‘듣는 공동체’의 가능성을 탐색하며, 인간과 비인간의 경계를 넘는 관계적 청취의 방식을 제안한다.
Project Members
Dianaband (Shin Wonjeong and Lee Dooho) are sound and media artists who create objects, media, situations, and rhythms. Their work explores methods and attitudes that allow for deep connection and empathy between the “I” and the “you.”
https://dianaband.in/
Oro Minkyung has an attuned ear for high frequencies that many people don’t consider as “sound.” She listens to and works with acoustic landscapes that are often dismissed as inaudible. Her practice observes personal memories and the delicate tremors of shaking leaves, raising questions about what subtle forces can do in the world.
https://orominkyung.com/
Jeon Solbee moves between exhibition and publishing formats through collaborative practices rooted in the visual politics of contemporary minority movements and artistic interventions in the field. Her writing asks how language can meaningfully collaborate with lived spaces, and she continuously experiments with ways of writing that shift within and across media.
https://sonustext.cargo.site/
Grace Kim (Sungeun) works across audiovisual research and non-fiction filmmaking grounded in visual anthropology. Their practice explores relationships mediated by the camera, bodily modes of recording, and the possibilities of care and collaboration through the activation of memory.
Unmute Water: A Walk in Oscillation
June 1 - July 21, 2024
Sanjicheon Gallery, 36 Jungang-ro 3-gil, Jeju-si
Participating Artists: dianaband (Shin Won-jeong, Lee Du-ho), Oro Min-kyung, Kim Grace
Essay: Jeon Solbee
Workshop: Jeon Solbee, Oro Min-kyung
Design: Yuhee Jeong, Zzs Studio
Spatial Installation: Joo Jae-hoon, ooujjuoo Studio
Coordination: Jo Eun
Collaboration: ADI
Sponsor: Jeju Culture and Arts Foundation
Organized/hosted by: Unmute Water Project
Curatorial Statement
Underground water has long flowed through the earth as a vessel for memories unseen by human eyes. When rain falls, it briefly fills Jeju’s dry riverbeds before vanishing through cracks in the rocks, seeping into subterranean air vents known as sumgol, cascading down the lava walls of caves, and eventually reemerging as coastal springs after being compressed over time within the volcanic strata of the island. This ever-moving water leaves behind traces—silent marks etched in hidden spaces.
The physical sensation of thirst constantly reminds us that our bodies are composed mostly of water. Yet groundwater, invisible and inaudible, only becomes legible as material value once it is bottled in plastic and consumed. Even now, countless micro-vibrations ripple through the darkness beneath our feet—droplets shattering in silence beyond the range of human hearing. Though often forgotten, these sounds persist. After the pandemic and a period of recovery and rebuilding, we have become more acutely aware of our interdependence with more-than-human beings on this shared planet. While our daily lives are punctuated by forgetting—of distant wars, of the looming climate crisis—we are also reminded by the faint yet enduring testimonies of Jeju’s April 3rd Uprising that even the most muffled tremors carry the potential to become waves. The desire to hear what cannot be heard becomes an act of remembering.
The participating artists of Unmute Water: A Walk in Oscillation—Diana Band (Shin Wonjeong & Lee Dooho), Oro Minkyung, and Grace Kim—conducted six months of field research across Jeju, visiting dry riverbeds, caves, and sumgol. Holding the question, “How can we hear the sound of water beneath the ground?”, they experimented with various bodily senses and listening devices to find ways of connecting with water. The journey of bringing our bodies to water’s domain was also a trembling affirmation of existence. These walks in vibration continue to flow—within the self, within relationships, and within the world—through encounters and frictions with various more-than-human beings.
The Sanjicheon stream, where surface water meets resurging groundwater, holds deep symbolic meaning both geopolitically and historically. It is a fitting site for an exhibition exploring such tremors and flows. How far can our listening bodies walk in step with other audible bodies? In the echoing footsteps of Jeju’s women who carried water jars daily up the stream to collect spring water; in the mourning steps beside the sea to mark the tenth anniversary of the Sewol Ferry disaster; in the movements of activists building new homes in Rohingya refugee camps; in the bodies that cross and dissolve borders and walls—this walk continues.
Video Documentation
by Kamagwi Pictures
Reflecting Stories: Jeju and the Rohingya
Workshop by Jeon Solbee & Oro Min-kyung
As part of this exhibition’s ongoing exploration of field research conducted across Jeju’s dry riverbeds, caves, and sumgol (air vents), this program extends the project’s inquiry into history, memory, and solidarity by inviting the lived reality of a refugee camp into the gallery space.
We welcome activists from the Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, who run a women’s community center called Santikana. These women, survivors of an ongoing genocide, will share their stories of trauma, healing, and resilience. Their voices, in dialogue with Jeju’s own painful memories, will illuminate each other—bringing together long-past and still-unfolding histories through mutual reflection. We hope this shared reflection becomes a starting point for future stories yet to be told.
This program is organized in collaboration with Asia Dignity Initiative (ADI), a nonprofit organization dedicated to documenting, supporting, and standing in solidarity with communities affected by conflict across Asia. It will also reference their upcoming June 2024 publication, “I Want to Dance but the House is Too Small”, part of their Fascicle series.
제주 전역의 건천, 동굴, 숨골을 찾아 현장 연구를 진행하며 역사와 기억, 연대의 의미를 사유한 본 전시의 의미를 확장하여 난민캠프라는 현장을 전시장에 가져옵니다. 본 프로그램은 방글라데시 콕스바자르의 로힝야 난민캠프에서 여성 커뮤니티 센터 ‘산티카나’를 운영하는 현지 활동가들을 초대하여 현재진행 중인 대학살의 생존자로서 트라우마를 치유하고 회복탄력성을 키우며 살아가는 로힝야 여성들의 이야기를 나누고자 합니다. 이는 제주가 품고 있는 아픈 기억과 만나며 오래된 이야기와 지금 진행 중인 이야기로서 서로를 선명하게 되비출 것입니다. 이 되비춤의 자리가 어떤 다음 이야기를 만들어낼지 기대하며 이 프로그램은 아시아 분쟁 지역에서 피해공동체의 일상생활 회복을 위해 기록, 지원, 연대 활동을 하는 비영리 단체 아디(ADI)가 6월 발간할 책 <춤추고 싶은데 집이 너무 좁아서>(2024, 파시클)을 참조하며 진행될 예정입니다.
■ 일시: 6월 30일(일) 오후 3시- 오후 5시
■ 장소: 산지천갤러리 1층
■ 진행: 오로민경, 전솔비, 로힝야 난민캠프 현지 활동가들
I Want to Become the Sound of a Ship’s Horn
Essay by Jeon Solbee
Audio Visual Archive
Space designed by ooujjuoo Studio @ooujjuoo
Exhibition Components: 2 video installations, Photo printouts of research process, Essay printouts, Stone rubbing, Silk screen frame
Exhibited Videos
Filmed and edited by Kamagwi Production
- Documentation of Sprial Listening (Workshop from 2023 exhibition)
2023년 전시 <나선적 듣기> 워크샵 기록
- Walk in Memory
기억하며 걷기
April 16, 2024. We walked together from Sanjicheon to Jeju Port, imagining the sounds that never arrived. It was the 10th anniversary of the Sewol Ferry Disaster.
2024년 4월 16일. 세월호 침몰의 10주기가 되던 날. 도착하지 못한 소리들을 떠올리며 산지천에서 제주항까지 함께 걸었다.
Unmute Water: The Sound of Muted Water
November 11 – December 2, 2023
Gamjeo Gallery, 22 Daehan-ro, Daejeong-eup, Seogwipo-si, Jeju Island
Participating Artists: dianaband (Shin Won-jeong, Lee Du-ho), Oro Min-kyung, Kim Grace
Workshop by Yujin Lee, Next Door To The Museum
Design: Yuhee Jeong, Zzs Studio
Spatial Installation: Joo Jae-hoon, ooujjuoo Studio
Coordination: Jo Eun
Collaboration: Next Door To The Museum
Sponsor: Jeju Culture and Arts Foundation
Organized/hosted by: Unmute Water Project
Unmute Water: On the Faith in Having Heard, or a Rhythm
Curatorial Statement by Grace Kim
The sound of water beneath the ground does not reach our ears. Yet even in moments imperceptible to human senses, vibrations travel body to body—sound already arriving before we notice it. Silence is not simply the absence of sound; it is an intentional state—either the weakening of a wave or the failure to attend to it. The sounds of countless beings living on this island have been erased over time, through histories of tragedy and the logic of tourism and development.
Holding the belief that “the sound of underground water exists” and asking “how might we hear it?”, we began by placing our bodies within the environment of water. As we encountered water soaking through layers of earth and stone, the ground of the island transformed—from a surface we stand on into a space water brushes through. Microphones and recorders, once meant to amplify the sound of flowing water, instead led us to new structures of listening. We chose to listen with our whole bodies. We guessed at the sound of the unknown. Is this really the sound of water I am hearing? We tried to attune ourselves to the rhythm of unreachable depths. Through reverberation and resonance, sound exists—any erased sound continues to echo through the traces that remain. It is time to imagine listening structures that lie below the surface, in other dimensions, apart from ourselves. Perhaps we are listening to another being’s rhythm, in another temporal zone.
Until now, water has appeared to us as something that rises from below and flows back downward—a linear temporality. But the archive of water, seeping through countless cracks, carries accidental and plural temporalities. We have never seen water before it surges. We can only speculate on the nature of surface and deep water through scientific data. To listen to water underground is to participate in its temporality, to admit we do not know its will, and still trust that our vibrations are interconnected. Imagining the ears of sand and stone, my ears witness (耳擊) the structures and networks of water that surround me in this moment. And perhaps, in that declaration of having heard the tone of water past, the mute button is finally released.
Spiral Listening
Workshop by Yujin Lee, Next Door To The Museum
Spiral Listening is a gathering that explores listening on another dimension—through cycles and repetition. Set in a traditional farmhouse nestled in a mid-mountain village of Jeju, this place is known for its frequent fog, dense gotjawal forests, and historical scarcity of water that made human habitation difficult.
Around a fire in the courtyard, participants engage with one another’s words, writings, and tastes, twisting the senses of the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body like the spiral of a conch shell. Through the crackling fire, its warmth, rising smoke, and the steam of boiling water, we attempt to reach what cannot be seen, heard, or touched.
Departing from linear temporality that moves from past to present to future, the program invites us to enter a more plural time—like fog dispersing in all directions—and listen deeply to the underground sound of water as it moves far beneath us.
Yujin Lee is a visual artist and collaborator whose work values process and relationship. She creates in the language of relational aesthetics, particularly engaged with regional identity and the formation of community beyond metropolitan centers. She runs Art House Next Door, an artist studio and residency nestled in a humble countryside home shared with fields, chickens, and a dog, where domestic and ecological life intertwine with artistic practice for creators from Korea and abroad.
https://jejuanarchist.com
<나선적 듣기>는 순환과 반복 안에서 다른 차원의 듣기를 시도하는 모임입니다. 모임 장소는 오래된 농가로 예로부터 안개가 많이 끼고 곶자왈이 우거져 있으며 물이 굉장히 귀해서 사람이 살기 어려웠다는 제주의 중산간 마을에 위치합니다. 마당에 피워놓은 모닥불 주위에 모여 서로의 말, 글, 맛을 경험하면서 눈, 귀, 코, 혀, 몸의 감각을 소라의 껍데기처럼 빙빙 비틀어 봅니다. 모닥불의 소리, 온기, 연기, 그리고 끓는 물이 생성하는 수증기를 매개 삼아 보이지 않고, 들리지 않으며, 만질 수 없는 곳에 닿아봅니다. 과거, 현재, 미래로 이어지는 선형의 시간성에서 벗어나 안개처럼 사방으로 퍼지는 다원적 시간성을 의식하면서 땅속 깊이 움직이고 있는 물의 소리를 들어봅니다.
■ 장소:미술관옆집(제주시 한경면 저지 12길71-1)
■ 일시: 11월19일(일)오후4시
■ 진행:이유진
Water Sound Shadow
Essay by Jeon Solbee
Poster & Brochure Design
by Zzs Studio @___zzs