Suspicious Museum of Natural History

Supposedly restricted from human access for about 70 years, the rhetoric of ‘untouched nature’ that surrounds the Korean Demilitarized Zone ignores its unidentified landmines, armed posts and barbed wire. Such romanticization suggests that untouched nature is achievable by violence, serving to justify its perpetuation. The project is a speculative archive of the biodiversity that coexists with the infrastructure of violence, for instance longhorn beetles that use anti-tank mines as alternative spawning sites, and sparrows that apply the gunpowder of damaged unexploded bombs to the walls of nests. Using the cultural tropes of natural history museums — illustrations, dioramas and audio guides — emphasises how the concept of nature is designed.