MUSEUM DESIGN > 5.18 GWANGJU CEMETERY

[5.18 Gwangju Cemetery]
200, Minju-ro, Buk-gu, Gwangju, Republic of Korea
Diorama design and production in cemetery
commissioned by 5.18 Gwangju Cemetery office / 2013
h 250X w 1650 X h 1200 mm(excluding the pedestal)
wood and mixed media

 

This cemetery is the site of the tombs of those who sacrificed their lives for the democratization campaign to protest military dictatorship and rule, to abolish martial law, and to release democratic political leaders from May 18-27, 1980 . I was interested in the democratization movement since middle school, and I felt it was special to make it here. So despite the small production cost, so I was given the production at the request of the director of 5.18 Gwangju cemetery. I made drawings and made this miniature with two employees.

 

 

 

Drawings

There was a difficulty in that there was no CAD drawing. We had to measure all the places of the tomb and make sketches. First, I edited the enlarged parts of the satellite map on the Internet and purchased contour lines of the current location. Then I checked the proportions of the contour lines and the satellite maps and the features and sizes of the terrain by comparing them. Then we calculated the ratio by comparing the actual location of the site with the reduced specific place in the cemetery. I have found the exact proportions by comparing several places like this. To make the buildings’ features look more details, I reduced the building to 500 to 1 and reduced the terrain to 600 to 1 to draw a miniature drawing. I visited the cemetery, measured all the buildings, and photographed the video to see how the entire structure was made. I checked all texture of the floor and the surface of the building through the photographs and the videos, also patterned them.

 

Constructing terrain according to contour lines

I mowed the woodrock to the correct contour lines and stacked them to make the terrain. Acrylic was cut with a laser to match the location of the graveyard and the boundary of the floor.

 

Buildings

The building was made by assembling laser-cut acrylic and wood according to the drawings made, and the textures on the surface were made to look like real-like textures.

 

Sculpture

Since all the sculptures had a deep meaning in the history of democratization, I tried to make their meanings look better.

 

Statue

There were two statues, but the size was less than 10mm in size. It was a sculpture with many democratized warriors within 5X2mm. One person was a small size of about 1.5mm, but it was made as close as possible to the action of a person.

 

Trees

Since there were many trees on the terrain, so it was important to express them. In order to increase the details of the tree, even though the height of the tree is as small as 6 to 9 mm, it made all the pillars of the tree and drove into the terrain. It took a long time to build and plant about 5000 trees and grass. However, this work did not seem to be a simple forest, and it raised the overall perfection.

 

Traffic facilities

I have tried to have the facilities of the road and the real road of reality. After the work was completed, we found that the underpass on the road was an important place in the democratization movement.

 

tombstones

I wanted to inscribe on tombstones but canceled because it was a size that visitors could not see. It was unfortunate that the names of passed away people could not be inscribed in the tombstone.

 

nameplate

Finally, I put name badges in each location so that I could serve as a guide to those visiting the tomb. The stage was treated with a urethane coating.

 

Size compared with objects

 

Installaton

This model was installed at the Gate of Democracy which is the entrance of the Gwangju cemetery at . Later, the head of the cemetery engraved my signature on the work.It meant he is thankful to me for making the work so good.