Seosomun Memorial Park

The Seosomun memorial site, despite its overwhelming historical importance, is today a derelict urban area. Traces of martyrdom are hardly visible, as they fail to engage visitors to the site unless they “stumble” – often almost incidentally – on the monument. Its use as urban park is very weak, despite being a rare resource of green space within Seoul’s congested city center. To evoke a memory requires, in our opinion, a strong engagement of the visitor at all levels. Statues, symbols, or objects alone cannot achieve this: it is necessary to create a particular setting, capable of inspiring in the visitor a specific mood. The gigantic “lens” inhabiting the center of the park therefore wants to play out a double role: to be a bearer of meaning, signifying the presence of the past, inspiring awe in those who arrive at it meandering through the dense forest, and to provide a large open space, which people can freely use throughout the year. For memory must not be preserved as if it were dead: it must be living, and we feel that by inviting visitors to freely inhabit the lens-shaped heart of the Memorial, they will be more welcomed and establish a stronger link with the history of Seosomun. The lens is also to be used to hold outdoor celebrations, with the officiant occupying the center of the circle with a movable altar.