Gymnasiums are designed to be used for social welfare purposes—namely, to promote health—but in times of disaster or crisis, they often become temporary shelters. In this artwork, gymnasiums symbolize the social system in which we live today and bodies represent people as social beings. The artist created this work “to make an abstract portrait of a tragic event engraved in our memories within Korean society and to show the reality that can be achieved within the process of abstracting it .” Here, some people sleep on black mats arranged haphazardly on the floor of the gymnasium while others sleep sitting upright on chairs next to them, alongside those who have not fallen asleep, all portraying the fears and anxieties of society and groups of individuals.
