Tomoko Yoneda, Entwined barbwire and flowers (near DMZ, Cheorwon, South Korea), 2015, image size: 65 x 83 cm, paper size: 94 x 76 cm, framed size: 96.5 x 78.5 cm
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This photograph is set in the 8km-wide Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that stretches north and south of the Military Demarcation Line (MDL), which divides North from South Korea. Civilian access to this area is restricted due to the presence of many buried landmines. Because the DMZ centres not on a national border but on the MDL—which was formed by the Armistice Agreement that suspended the Korean War on July 27, 1953—it makes us aware that the Korean Peninsula is still technically at war. Ironically, the DMZ is also a peaceful natural wonderland in which wild flora and fauna have formed their own ecosystem, heedless of the boundary that human beings have drawn. This is a reflection, says Yoneda, of how individuals find their destinies dictated as they are drawn into the larger groups represented by the state, society, and religion. text by Paul Carey-Kent
