The Artist © Seungwon Park

People visit zoos to observe animals and, at times, to communicate with them. But what do the visitors mean to the animals living inside the zoo? Just as humans regard zoo animals as objects of observation, humans themselves may also become the subjects of animals’ gazes. This idea is explored in the work of performance artist Seungwon Park (37).

Two video works presented by Park in 《Museum Zoo》, on view through next month’s 13th at the Seoul National University Museum of Art in Gwanak-ro, Seoul, document his attempts to communicate with chimpanzees, lions, and other animals at the Berlin Zoo and Hamburg Zoo during the seven years he lived in Germany.

In a recent interview with the Hankook Ilbo, Park stated, “I wanted to find out whether it was possible to communicate with animals through gestures and movement rather than language,” adding, “However, the animals in zoos were isolated, and this was not so different from the condition of people living in contemporary society.”


Seungwon Park, siaraM-part.1, 2008 © Seungwon Park

Produced in 2008, siaraM-part.1 documents an attempt to connect with “Lily,” a female chimpanzee of the same age living at the Hamburg Zoo. In the video, the artist runs awkwardly through the streets at night and, separated from the chimpanzees by a glass wall, swings his arms loosely from side to side and up and down.

For this performance, Seungwon Park spent several months practicing chimpanzee movements and visited the chimpanzees at the same time every day for a week. By the fourth day, the chimpanzee appeared to recognize him and began mimicking his actions.

Park explained, “At one point while visiting the zoo, I made eye contact with a chimpanzee and felt that it was in a situation similar to mine, as a foreigner living in Germany,” adding, “Among the many chimpanzees, only Lily responded to me.”

Although Lily’s response seemed certain, Park began to question whether it could truly be called communication. Three years after the chimpanzee project, in 2011, he visited the lion enclosure at the Berlin Zoo. The resulting work, Gut gebrüllt, Löwe!, documented his attempts to speak to the lions by mimicking their cries.

He leapt into the air, dressed up as a lion, and let out long roars. Yet the lions remained completely indifferent and did not even turn their heads. “I came to realize that the lions’ lack of response was itself a form of stereotypic behavior caused by the stress experienced by zoo animals,” he said. “I had thought zoos were places where people could experience the power of nature and find healing, but instead I came to see that the animals themselves were profoundly lonely beings.”


Seungwon Park, Gut gebrüllt, Löwe!, 2011 © Seungwon Park

When asked whether people around him found it strange to see a visitor repeatedly returning to the zoo to imitate chimpanzees and shout at lions, Seungwon Park replied, “I mostly worked during the daytime when there were not many visitors, and the zoo staff did not show any particular reaction,” adding, “I tried not to disturb other visitors.”

Park continued, “When I look at animals in zoos, I feel both sorry for them and sympathetic toward them, and at the same time they do not seem so different from people in contemporary society who are disconnected from others,” emphasizing, “I plan to continue exploring these themes in my work.”

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