Subtitle: Miss Jin & The Unwed Mothers

First exhibited in Kring Art Space, Seoul, South Korea and Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Denmark, in 2010.

Video/8 channel videoinstallation/conceptual project

The title stems from an anthropological saying: tell it the way they tell it, in order to think as a culture or people under study. The subtitle have the concept of merging the musicvideo and the ever growing K-pop industry in South Korea with the national trauma of exporting 200.000+ of its infant citizens away for adoption and breaking family bonds. I was invited to an exhibition with a clear expectation from the curators side, that I would fill out a specific (minority) identity with my work as a korean adoptee. To play with this peculiar stamp, I chose to confuse the usual production hierarchy and subvert the gazes . I wrote a performative concept for the project and found a diverse group of professionals to work with. In a sociocratic process with collective mindfulness meditations, the whole team consisting of a filmdirector, camera crew, lighting, designer and makeup, dancers and the curator had final say on all details regarding their fields and hands-on work, in dialogue with me. The crew were mostly from Denmark and found most of their money-jobs within theatre, film, commercials, music videos and fashion, which also shines through. The production was in itself not unusual from other medium-to-big art productions: a team effort of ideas, effort and knowledge with the artist on top as a brand or identifier of the work. The initial idea which consisted of a storyline around unwed korean mothers, attachment and loss is somewhat still there although filtered and intepreted through this collective gaze of a danish cultural production team.

Video: 15:00 min. / Production year: 2009

Artist/vocals/edit: Jette Hye Jin Mortensen
Director: Niels Kjær Olsen
Cinematography: Adam Jandrup
Sound: b9
Costumes: Anne Werner
Light Søren Knud
Choreographer: Ida-Elisabeth Larsen
Light assistants: Allan Køldal, Aske Wagner
Light/grip: Michel Copeland
Assistant/dancer: Joy Sun-Ra Pawl Hoyle
Dancers: Ida Marie Kloster, Cecilie Kvorning
Still Photographer: Andreas Johnsen
Runner: Christian Winther Christensen
Curator: Lee Min Young, Stenka Helfach