Migrant Worker’s Election Campaign Performance

Social Performance, 2004~ 2005

This performance is a social art project held in a public place. The artist Park Kyong Ju met citizens through performances in public spaces in five major cities in the form of a public art solo exhibition.

Migrant Worker’s Election Campaign Performance Part 1

An Yang City

Title: Migrant Worker’s Election Campaign Performance Part 1, Anyang City

Producer/ Author /Director: Park Kyong Ju

Collaborator: Chun Min Sung (OHMYNEWS CITIZEN REPORTER)

Camera: Park Kyong Ju, Sungsuk Suk

Edit: Park Kyong Ju

Year: September 29,2004

Length: 60min. (Documentary Video)

Place: Anyang City Public Art Project Exhibition Participation Performance 2004

A fake election campaign performances of virtual candidate were held in various places in Anyang city using campaign vehicles. Candidate Kim Ti-ton (28, A Bangladeshi who became a naturalized Korean) was happy to show that foreigners, like Koreans, can run for election as members of a community. However, he said it was a pity that fewer people than expected gathered at the place where he was giving the speech. Mr. Kim Ti-ton is working as a Bangladesh counselor at the Seoul Foreign Workers Center.

Artist Note

I prepared an election campaign performance which actualized a hypothetical situation where a migrant worker holding a Korean citizenship, participates in Korean politics.

A campaign truck decorated with placards of Kim Titon, a Bangladesh migrant worker, as its candidate, drove throughout the city of Anyang. Stump speakers on the truck solicited citizens for votes though loudspeakers and distributed election handouts, exactly like the real election campaign tour.

Listening to canvassing voices from loudspeakers and reading the election handouts, citizens of Anyang expressed rather generous opinions toward migrant workers in Korea. Several of them even misunderstood the campaign as one for the coming by-elections and studied carefully the pledges on the handouts. Some opinioned that they would vote for a migrant worker politician in the future.

– Park Kyong Ju 2004

Migrant Worker’s Election Campaign Performance Part 2

Dae Gu City

Title: Migrant Worker’s Election Campaign Performance Part 2, Daegu City

Producer/ Author /Director: Park Kyong Ju

Collaborator: Chun Min Sung (OHMYNEWS CITIZEN REPORTER)

Camera: Park Kyong Ju

Edit: Park Kyong Ju

Year: November 30, 2004

Length: 60min. (Documentary Video)

Place: A fake election campaign performance was held on the streets of Dongseong-ro in downtown Daegu, and citizens were interviewed.

Candidate Aziz (37, Bangladesh), who entered Korea on a trainee visa in 1994, said that he had to move to another factory where his friend worked because it was difficult to work. He said that it hurts to not even have a place to complain. He also confessed that when the bosses tell him to leave, the reality where there is nothing they can do is the most difficult. After majoring in bioengineering in college, he revealed his aspirations to open a trading company and promote Korean products to the world. He added that in order to continue working in Korea, he needs a labor visa that can guarantee his legal stay.

Migrant Worker’s Election Campaign Performance Part 3

Dae Jeon City

Title: Migrant Worker’s Election Campaign Performance Part 3, Daejeon City

Producer/ Author /Director: Park Kyong Ju

Collaborator: Chun Min Sung (OHMYNEWS CITIZEN REPORTER)

Camera: Park Kyong Ju

Edit: Park Kyong Ju

Year: December 25,2004

Length: 60min. (Documentary Video)

Place: A fake election campaign performance was held on the streets of Jungang-ro in downtown DaeJeon, and citizens were interviewed.

Candidate Wootti Park entered Korea from Indonesia on an industrial trainee visa four years ago and worked at a textile factory in Daegu before moving to a metal factory in Daejeon for a low salary. He said he wants to run an electronics store that sells computers when he returns to his home country after working hard even though he is currently taking a break because he has no job.

Migrant Worker’s Election Campaign Performance Part 4

Chan Won City

Title: Migrant Worker’s Election Campaign Performance Part 4, Changwon City

Producer/ Author /Director: Park Kyong Ju

Collaborator: Chun Min Sung (OHMYNEWS CITIZEN REPORTER)

Camera: Park Kyong Ju

Edit: Park Kyong Ju

Year: December 26, 2004

Length: 60min. (Documentary Video)

Place: A fake election campaign performance was held on the streets of in downtown Changwon, and citizens were interviewed.

Lee Hae-mini (30, Nepal), a member of the sit-in group, held a tent sit-in for 380 days at Myeong-dong Cathedral, calling for the full legalization of undocumented migrant workers and against forced deportation. In this performance, he appeared as an election candidate for the migrant workers’ campaign performance in Changwon.

The performance, which started by distributing handouts to passengers on the train headed for Changwon, continued with ‘Encounter with Asian Culture’, a year-end event hosted by Changwon City and the Gyeongnam Foreign Workers Counseling Center.

Migrant Worker’s Election Campaign Performance Part 5

Gwang Ju City

Title: Migrant Worker’s Election Campaign Performance Part 5, Gwang Ju City

Producer/ Author /Director: Park Kyong Ju

Collaborator: Chun Min Sung (OHMYNEWS CITIZEN REPORTER)

Camera: Park Kyong Ju

Edit: Park Kyong Ju

Year: January 17, 2005

Length: 60min. (Documentary Video)

Place: A fake election campaign performance was held on the streets of in downtown Gwang Ju, and citizens were interviewed.

Arisa Lim (34), a migrant woman from Thailand, announced her candidacy for the election, saying that she became a candidate for the election on behalf of many migrant women who entered Korea through international marriages and were treated inhumanely like herself.

She said that many migrant women suffer from cultural differences in Korean society and live with various emotional difficulties between their in-laws and husbands, and she hopes that the treatment of them will improve as soon as possible.

After holding her election campaign at the fountain in front of the Jeollanam-do Provincial Office and on Geumnam-ro, she wrapped up her performance by laying flowers at the memorial tower in Mangwol-dong.

Ohmynews citizen reporter Chun Min Sung close coverage article

최초의 이주노동자 정치인이 나온다면? What if the first migrant worker politicians appeared? (2004.09.28)
이주노동자가 국회의원 된다면… If migrant workers become members of the National Assembly…(2004.11.30)
‘이주노동자 정치인’ 언제쯤 나올까? When will ‘Migrant Worker Politician’ come out?(2004.12.29)
광주에서 펼쳐진 이주노동자 선거유세 퍼포먼스 Election campaign performance of migrant workers held in Gwangju ( 2005.01.18)