Hayoun Kwon (Seoul, 1981~) is a filmmaker and media artist based in Korea and France. She visualizes the experiences and memories of others through 3D animation and VR images. Her work materializes personal narratives, enabling them to extend beyond mere imagery to immersive experiences, allowing viewers to engage deeply with stories they have never personally encountered.

We perceive events through the lens of a camera and on a screen. While traditional documentary films have aimed to capture events on-site, how should we depict the experiences of those who lived through them? If a story is visualized not through a camera but through virtual reality, can it still be considered a documentary?

Hayoun Kwon's work serves as an answer to this question. She reconstructs personal memories within virtual spaces, demonstrating that despite memory's subjective nature—often positioned in opposition to factual reality—it remains a valid medium for testimony. Kwon does not shy away from memory’s inherent unreliability; rather, she embraces it. Even though her reconstructions do not transform memory into objective reality, they function as testimonies. Through her practice, she affirms that VR-based storytelling can be just as powerful as lens-based documentation.

Despite the many historical and formal shifts within documentary filmmaking, the term "documentary" continues to be associated with truth, reality, and objectivity. However, the notion of capturing reality as it exists has already become a "traditional" or even "idealistic" approach to the genre.

For a long time, the world seen through the camera lens functioned as objective evidence. The traditional authority of documentary film was rooted in the "factuality" of images. However, we are no longer in an era where what is captured by the lens is automatically considered truth, nor where the presence of an image serves as irrefutable proof of its non-fictionality. The dismantling of the idealized documentary opened up new possibilities—challenging the notion that only lens-based images could represent reality. The moment fictional imagery begins to communicate truth, a new form of documentary emerges: animated documentary.

Scholar Choi Hyun-joo describes this shift as the emergence of a "contradictory union between the factuality of documentary and the fictionality that opposes it." She defines animation documentary as a form in which documentary merges with "fictional modes of expression." This suggests that fictionalized representation can also speak truth. Physical records, once unquestioned in their authority over truth, now face challenges—aligning with Kwon’s methodological evolution.

The lens-bound documentary framework has long been restricted by its focus on the physical world—it could only record what was materially present, unable to see beyond walls or capture non-linear time. However, an animated world of possibilities liberates the documentary form from its former constraints. Today, documentary no longer clings solely to factual representation.

What, then, can be said about the nature of memory in 489 Years (2016)? In this work, Kwon approaches a place that is both present and absent—a site whose existence is enforced by national power yet remains inaccessible.

The title of the work refers to the estimated time required to clear all landmines from the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The narrative follows the personal recollections of a former soldier, "Kim." As we trace his memories—some captured in photographs—the images begin to dissolve, and suddenly, we find ourselves inside the photographs. In this world, words and images unfold at the same pace, rendering them inseparable. It becomes unclear whether the act of speaking generates the images or whether the act of seeing dictates the narrative. Within Kwon’s world, language and imagery coexist in the same temporal frame.

By visualizing memory, Kwon transforms private recollections into shared experiences. Through a process of rewriting and layering, she reconstructs what could not previously be seen. Though her images emerge from imagination, they seamlessly anchor themselves in reality, reflecting it with even greater clarity.


1) Choi Hyun-joo. 『Documentary and the Representation of Reality』. Paju: Hanul Academy, 2018, p.181.

References

• [비평] 상상의 다큐멘터리: 권하윤, 〈489년〉
  [Critique] Imaginary Documentary: “489 Years” by Hayoun Kwon)