‘Yong-san, My Dysneyland (2004-2005)’ is a single-channel video piece which portrays a satirical point of view on this wannabe futuristic area of complex urban Seoul.  
  

Yong-san is the center of Seoul geographically, but its character is not as easily graspable on a cultural or political level. The United States Forces Korea has been in Yong-san since the end of the Korean War in 1953. This is the cause of much controversy in the area and there are many demonstrations against them every day. Since the establishment of the American army, Yong-san has had restricted liberty to develop its area as much as the rest of Seoul. This makes present-day Yong-san a very unbalanced area. One part is full of Americans, and the other part is the poorest region of Seoul. To add to this disparate nature is the digital technology mega center, the Yong-san electronic market. For the Korean government, Yong-san is a problematic area, because they cannot manipulate a city plan for Korea’s own future. Everything depends on the love-hate relationship with the American military. So, what can Korea do with Yong-san? The Yong-san electronic market is perhaps the answer – a happy illusion that Korea's bright future in technology will mask its tumultuous political counterpart. When powerless and in doubt, go play with your gadgets. Thus, Yong-san becomes a Dysneyland of games and politics.

More specifically, Yong-san’s electronic market has many layers to its landscape. Yong-san electronic market is the biggest electronic market in Korea and a foreigner’s shopping area full of discount gadgets. There are multitudes of computer, electronic, and other digital gadgets endlessly sprawled out, bought and sold like discount fruit and vegetables in a local market. Illegal new film, game CDs and DVDs all come out through the streets of the Yong-san electronic market. Those venturing into this area for the first time are bound to be lost in the maze. There are around 7,000 stores.

Yong-san is the backdoor of the mega capital of Seoul. It’s a brutally beautiful place full of contradictions.

I spent 4 years in Yong-san studying, living and loving the area. I was fascinated with the new technology of the Yong-san electronic market from the very first moment. It was my own Dysneyland for fun and amusement. But in reality, is it really the fantastic techno-paradise it promises to be?  Would all this technology bring us advanced life? The idea of human advancement through digitalized routines is a notion as uncertain as the long tunnel of the Yong-san underground. These ideas at present are very short-term illusions that are not proving to be very tangible events or objects. My Dysneyland, Yong-san, is one of these illusions.