The article takes its departure point from the successes and failures of the

democratic movement in the 1980s called Minjung, or, common people. Some of the most

compelling examples of art in the post-Minjung era that pursues radical democracy in

South Korea represent the social underclass and subalterns forsaken during the Cold

War era. Critically responding to specific historical contexts, the artists Sangdon

Kim, Chan-kyong Park, and Minouk Lim seek to undo the invisibility of subalterns

that have been excluded in the master narrative of Minjung, commemorate the dignity

of the silenced, and reaffirm the difference of the subjectivities of dissenting

others. They present antagonistic resistance against the legacies of the militarism,

imperialism, and the Cold War that still grip the nation.

(downloadable PDF coming soon)