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South Korean landscapes of power: apartments and the modern city in Seoul

Le 26 mars 2015, Valérie Gelézeau a été invitée par Vladimir Thikonov à donner une conférence au département des langues et civilisations orientales de l’Université d’Oslo.

Intitulée « South Korean landscapes of power : apartments and the modern city in Seoul », cette conférence reprenait en les prolongeant les interprétations du livre Séoul, ville géante, cités radieuses (CNRS éditions, 2003), désormais en accès libre et gratuit sur OpenEdition.

Résumé de la conférence

Largely unknown to city-dwellers before the 1960s, large apartment complexes (ap’at’ŭ tanji) are powerfully shaping the landscapes of contemporary South Korean cities. Some are now being memorialized by artists, planners or citizen themselves. How did western-style housing blocks migrate to Korea on such a large scale? To what extend do they reflect the power relations between the global and the local in South Korean cities? What is currently at stake regarding the future of apartments in the contemporary post-industrial Korean society? Combining the perspective of cultural geography and Korean studies, the conference will address those issues regarding the significance of South Korea as a “Republic of Apartments” (ap’at’ŭ konghwaguk), where apartment complexes have been the main architectural mediation of the Korean society to its urban modernity.

 

Source : Carnets du Centre Corée

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Academy of Korean studies Inalco Université Paris Diderot-Paris 7 EHESS