Surface of Memory, Memory on Surface

Surface of Memory, Memory on Surface

1999 · 24 min

This film is based upon the form of an individual’s diary. Jangwook created new images using several chemical treatments on the film surface while using footage of his daily life. These serial works begun from trials that Lee had communicated, seeking to re-construct his own memories, where the ‘mind’s eye’ become connected with the ‘camera’s eye’ and with film itself. In doing so the film is a conversation with personal documentary and everyday practice at the darkroom.

Directed by Lee Jangwook

Your Rating

More from Lee JangwookSee all →

Echoed Silence

Echoed Silence · 1998

This film is an experiment on editing, deconstructing and reconstructing, a game of collision between frames. As a narrative body disintegrates, it gradually becomes possible for viewers to pay attention to the phenomena of intra-frame intervals.

Landscape Project

Landscape Project · 2016

Landscape Project

Performed with multiple film projectors and improvised sound, this live film of variable duration is an act of exploring multi-layered memories on landscape. Institutional, historical and personal approaches will be applied at the same time. Personal memory, which collides with historical context, may reveal fragments of innermost secrets.

Station

Station · 2025

The music film for Lee Minhwi's song "The Station."

Lazimpat

Lazimpat · 2015

This film is made of footages shot on the rooftop of my friend's house at Kathmandu, Nepal. Lazimpat is a name of the street where the house locates. It's a portrait of people, sunshine, flowers, and etc. (Lee Jang-wook)

Chang Gyeong

Chang Gyeong · 2024

MovieDocumentary

"Emotional memories that had formed the ambiguous boundaries between reality and fantasy began to divide exactly in two, and at the same time there was no emotion left on either side of reality and fantasy." Chang Gyeong is the name of a palace in central Seoul - a palace that was turned into a zoo by the occupying Japanese.

Photosynthesis prologue

Photosynthesis prologue · 2024

Photosynthesis prologue

Light reflects off the screen and reaches the audience's bodies, only to reflect again, faintly moving elsewhere. Sound also reflects off the walls, resonating and echoing. Light and sound do not disappear; they linger, sometimes intersecting by chance and sometimes passing by. Photosynthesis is an attempt to sensitively capture and respond to these fleeting moments.

Sunday Seoul

Sunday Seoul · 2016

When reading out loud, sometimes it is hard to tell who between the reader and the text penetrates the other. Archives are not much different, since they are always perceived through their present utility. Two young female readers invited by Jangwook Lee discover as they read – in a careful, faltering voice – various articles from the “Sunday Seoul”, a typical magazine from the 1970s, devoted to supposed female archetypes: time, bodies, voices and texts echo one another. (Nicolas Feodoroff)

Landscape in the Afternoon

Landscape in the Afternoon · 2013

Landscape in the Afternoon

Images out of their intended context create new context, and also provide us the perception to be able to see which were there but not seen in its own context. This work is a process of research on the world which is familiar, but at the same time full of mysteries. This film is based on the abandoned images with variable reasons. I hoped the images would be free from the logic of selection. At the same time, I was curious about the world which is full of mysteries, always richer than the personal perception. (Lee Jangwook)

The Light of Silence

The Light of Silence · 2026

The Light of Silence

Sometimes, the void becomes a passage to the invisible. The film is a journey in pursuit of that which saturates the forest yet eludes human perception. Flashes and darkness, punctuated by fleeting hues, conspire to capture presences that linger between the present and the yet-to-come. Surrendering to the film's orchestrated rhythm rewards viewers with unprecedented imagery. (Sung MOON)

Autumn Film

Autumn Film · 2013

This film is inspired by a moment of one autumn day in my childhood. The moment I experienced was impossible to be measured or represented. I became curious about this ‘Image of Time’. This film is the first step on the journey.

Masarap Na Kanta

Masarap Na Kanta · 2013

Masarap Na Kanta

MovieDocumentary

Masarap Na Kanta begins like an impressionist painting. A man sits at a table outdoors, which makes the scene look like another uneventful day in the suburbs.

Photosynthesis part 1

Photosynthesis part 1 · 2025

Photosynthesis part 1

Double projection with two 16mm projectors. The images begin with two parallel screens. They consist of fragments of light flashing like bursts in the darkness. As the process progresses, each projector moves simultaneously and overlaps. The sound actively utilises optical sound. In the latter part, Lee Minhwi's "The Light of Silence" is inserted.

Surface Memory Oblivion

Surface Memory Oblivion · 2019

Surface Memory Oblivion

Changgyeong Palace was converted into a zoo in the Japanese colonoial period and continued to operate as such for some time after liberation.

Hibernation

Hibernation · 2007

'hibernation ' is conceived from the videotape of the wedding ceremony and the daughter's home video. In the work process, the filmmaker pays attention to the details being recorded, what I remember, and the relationship to lead it in the new detail. Hand printing performs the role of editing and printing simultaneously. As a result, the print created in this process will be a result and new material at the same time. Additive printing procedure is taken as a manner of recording in this film.

Storage of Landscape

Storage of Landscape · 2015

Storage of Landscape

MovieDocumentary

Perceived unfamiliar landscapes in unfamiliar places. Unfamiliar landscapes that fleetingly pass by in familiar spaces. Landscapes that feel unfamiliar yet familiar. And both visual and non-visual sounds. An attempt to focus on the boundary between familiarity and unfamiliarity in preserved landscapes.

Serene Observation

Serene Observation · 2012

Serene Observation

MovieDocumentary

A short film by Lee Jangwook

More Like This

Couldn't load this row right now.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter