Suspicious House - Suspicious House

"Suspicious House", started operating on the afternoon of June 22, 2019, at the address 14-4, Doyeon 3-gil, Jeju-si. The shape of the house is as strange as the name itself. One house contains another house inside. On the first floor there was an old house that had existed for many years, and surrounded by a row of makeshift houses, as if they had just been built. So, what's special and interesting about "Suspicious House"?

Both the old house inside and the aforementioned address are owned by Kang Gwang-bo, a Jeju resident. He is a victim of state violence, who has been falsely accused of being a "spy" for many years. In 1979, Kang Gwang-bo was officially charged with espionage. He fled to Japan in the early 1960s to meet his father, who also fled to Japan during the Jeju Uprising. Unfortunately, in 1979, he was caught on an illegal trip and deported to Jeju. Within a few months of his arrival, he was suddenly detained by the police and tortured for 65 days for being "spy".

He continued to endure the same hardships. Seven years later, in 1986, Kang Gwang-bo was again threatened and tortured for espionage, after which he was sentenced to seven years in prison and seven years of suspension of his degree. It was not until 2017 that he was found not guilty. Kang finally received "not guilty" after filing a retrial of the fabricated espionage case. It has been 31 years since the state accused him of being a spy.

This house was built by his parents while he was in prison, thinking of their son. They knew that Kang Gwang-bo would not be able to enjoy a normal life in this society once he was branded as a spy. It was his parents who created this space to shelter his body, even though it was not too large in size. Since then, Kang Gwang-bo has struggled to get retrial with this house as his starting point. In solidarity with the neighbors who were also accused of being "spies", Kang Gwang-bo struggled to clear his name and finally proved his innocence.

Byeon Sang-cheol, general secretary of Here for Now, was the one who planned the arrangement and construction of the Suspicious House. The interior of the Suspicious House includes an exhibition space, a cafe, and a living room. Kang's original house was the gallery and the new house built on top has space for his residence. The structure of the exhibition is divided into three parts: “The Story of Gwang-bo”, “The Lost Age” and “Here for Now”. “The Story of Gwang-bo” recreates the room where Kang Gwang-bo used to live. The inside is decorated with chronology of his personal history when he was accused of espionage and some of his drawings.