Seven-channel-video installation in sculptural viewing environment with red powder
The Radiant City, Dark Rapture―Dystopic Images of the Modern City, SeMA Bunker
– In collaboration with Steffen Köhn –
TIME OF RED is a seven-channel video installation that explores the alternate history narrative presented in the globally acclaimed video game Cyberpunk 2077, examining how it has inspired fan content creators to expand and elaborate on the game’s lore.
A site-specific installation for SeMA bunker in Seoul, – an underground bunker supposedly built by the military regime in the 1970s, transformed into an art space -, this work imagines the events on the Korean peninsula within the game’s universe. Since the video game is based on a pen-and-paper role-playing game originally released in 1988, its alternate history diverges from real-world events starting at that point in time. Within the Cyberpunk universe, Korea reunifies after South Korea’s victory in the Second Korean War in 2005.
By 2024, a critical event occurs: the aftermath of the Fourth Corporate War, resulting in a nuclear disaster and the period known as The Time of the Red. This era is marked by an eerie red hue over the skies worldwide, with blood rain and vibrant sunrises and sunsets. Employing various fan-created mods, the installation reimagines Night City as Neo-Seoul. A virtual camera drifts through the toxic, ash-choked streets of a post-apocalyptic Korean capital, where remnants of artificial life persist in the shadows of devastation.
Conjuring Cyberpunk 2077’s post-apocalyptic pre-history, the work vividly depicts the world in 2024, as envisioned in the alternative reality of one of the most successful video games —a mirror image of our own reality.
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VFX and game modding: Alexander Bley.
Commissioned by the SeMA EMERGING ARTISTS & CURATORS 2024, The Radiant City, Dark Rapture―Dystopic Images of the Modern City, Curated by Hyewon Lee.
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