Seoul Comfort Women Monument “Artist’s Sexual Misconduct” Unfortunate Reason for Removal…Citizen’s group: “Denounce the Crime, but No to Erase History” Logic
KOREA WAVE, Sept. 08, 2012] A monument in a park in the center of Seoul City commemorates former comfort women. However, the artist who created the monument was convicted of indecent assault. Is it right to continue displaying the work of such a man?
Amid a whirlwind of controversy, the city of Seoul removed the monument on May 5. The city government stated that “leaving the work of an artist who was convicted of indecent assault in a place for the comfort women who have suffered is insulting to the comfort women and contrary to public sentiment. The city is putting forward these reasons.
The works removed were “Eye of the Earth,” “Navel of the World,” and six other works by Im Ok Sang, which were installed at the “Place of Memory” for the comfort women issue in Namsan Park. An attempt to remove the works was made on April 4, but was blocked by Solidarity for Justice and Memory, a support group for former comfort women.
On August 17, the Seoul Central District Court sentenced Lim to six months in prison, suspended for two years, on charges of indecent assault and other offenses. Defendant Lim has appealed the decision, claiming that the sentence was unfair.
In response, the Seoul Metropolitan Government announced that it would remove all of Lim’s works in the city. Meanwhile, Solidarity for Memory of Justice and others had been campaigning against the removal of the works, claiming that “the removal of the works from the ‘Memory Site’ in Seoul is an erasure of the history of ‘comfort women’ by the Japanese military and the history of resistance to violence against women.
A new work of art will be installed at the site of the six pieces, after consultation with the Public Art Committee and other matters.
