Semin Hong

The belief that moves mountain. 
This phrase explains how mountain is usually perceived to be immovable, ever lasting, changeless, static part of the land. 
 

Over 70 percent of Korean peninsula is covered with mountains. 
Back at home, we carve mountains to build more apartments.

People move annually around one apartment to another.

During the pandemic, I hiked the small mountain called Beop-hwa everyday. 
Footsteps wandering up and down the hills. 
A path well trodden. 
Collective decision made traces on the ground.
It was not something to dominate or conquer but rather coexist with.

Bulletin board with local news and ads at the halfway. 
 

That piece of bumpy land was a garden to my flat apartment. 
Apartment we were renting was so temporary that I couldn’t feel any depth. 
If I sneeze hard, it would all blow away, be gone. Thin.

Without any history I relate to.

Where only some indecipherable trace of anonymous past resides.

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