Hometown
Kim Beom
English
2005
13 x 18 cm, 50 pages, b/w, offset, perfect bound, softcover
“This book was first published for a group exhibition titled City and Image, which took place in 1988 in Seoul, Korea. In the exhibition, only A4-size sheet of paper with an advertisement for the book and order cards were on display. The viewers/readers who sent in an order card and money received their copies of Hometown by mail within 2 weeks. The text of this book is an English translation of the text originally in Korean.
It will be more difficult for readers of this English-language edition to use the town described in the book, Ungyeri, as their hometown than it would bee for someone born somewhere in Korea. The backdrop of Ungyeri is the mountainous region of Gangwon Province in Korea. Thus if you were to claim that Ungyeri was your hometown, the fact that you are“foreign-born,” not to mention your incompatible language and lifestyle, would become the object of suspicion. It would indeed have been ideal if I could have created a hometown foe each of you somewhere in your own country that has an environment similar to those of other people’s hometowns but is also very poetic. I regret that this is extremely difficult thing to realize.” — Part of the Preface to English Edition by Kim Beom