Echoes from the Border: Africa Town in Korea

CSAAD Afro-Asia Project
CHE Onejoon & Sun A Moon

Thursday, March 20, 2025
5:00 pm – 6:30 pm
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
20 Cooper SQ Room 101
NEW YORK, NY 10003
Zoom link: https://nyu.zoom.us/j/94185666385

This film screening and discussion explores the formation of Africa Town near Camp Casey, a U.S. military base located close to the Korean Demilitarized Zone. As one of the first African communities of its kind in Korea, this town emerged not just as a result of voluntary migration but also as a consequence of U.S. military policy shifts. The relocation of American troops led to a natural movement of African migrants, reshaping the socio-economic landscape of the region. This session examines the lives, identities, and cultural dynamics of this unique community, situated at the intersection of migration and militarization. Through a documentary film and a music video produced in collaboration with African migrants, the program offers a critical lens on how marginalized communities navigate space, belonging, and representation in a militarized border region. By contextualizing this phenomenon within broader discussions on migration and multiculturalism in East Asia, it also invites a reconsideration of the impact of U.S. military presence on local communities.

Register Here

AfroAsia Collective is an artist collective engaging with African and Asian migrant communities. Established in 2021 by curator Sun A MOON and artist CHE Onejoon, it operates Space AfroAsia in Dongducheon, invoking the Bandung spirit to forge new cultural solidarities between Africa and Asia through contemporary art. Expanding upon this foundation, AfroAsia has initiated a range of projects, including a music collaboration with Osinachi (2021–2023) and the documentary Dongducheon New Town (2023), which examines Korea’s African Towns. Since 2024, they have been developing a K-pop girl group composed of young Korean and African immigrant students, further advancing their commitment to transnational artistic exchange and youth empowerment.

Speakers:

Sun A MOON is co-founder and director of Space AfroAsia and AfroAsia – Eco Museum in Dongducheon, South Korea. Moon has worked internationally as an independent curator, researcher, and writer specializing in media art, generation theory, and cultural diversity. She has curated many exhibitions, including DMZ OPEN Exhibition: Passage (Imjingak Pyeonghwa Nuri, Peace Gondola, and Gallery Greaves, Paju, 2024), Railway 0 (Culture Center Seoul 284, Seoul, 2024), grandmothers (Post Territory Ujeongguk, Seoul, 2022), Brace for Impact (de Appel, Stedelijk Museum, De School, Amsterdam, 2018). She participated in the Tate Intensive Program in London (2017) and de Appel Curatorial Programme in Amsterdam (2017–2018), and received the Amado Exhibition Award (2016) and the Critic Festival Award (2016).

CHE Onejoon is a visual artist and filmmaker. He explores how changes in social structures, such as politics and ideology, shape places and identities. His early work examined Cold War ideology across the Korean Peninsula through photography, film, and archives. Since 2013, he has researched the relationship between Africa and East Asia. His works include International Friendship, which examines North Korean-built monuments in Africa, and Capital Black, which explores African diaspora culture near U.S. military bases in South Korea. Che has exhibited internationally at the Taipei Biennial, Busan Biennale, Jakarta Biennale, Venice Architecture Biennale, New Museum Triennial, Palais de Tokyo, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art, and more. He was a fellow at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam.