jayeong 1 / 자영 1

I'm half Korean, half German. Through this project I found a way to deal with my questions about home, motherland, belonging and identity without being fixated on finding answers. I gave into the experience and the world became my mirror.

There’s a small tattered piece of paper in my wallet, it says 자영. You always carry your own name and if you have two, you don’t want to forget either of them.My name is Clara, born and raised in a small town in southern Bavaria.

My name is Jayeong and I wonder where I’m actually at home.

I am the yellowed, worn paper with the characters on it. A reminder of my own future. A promise to myself.

I had many questions and I still have them. I ask them of myself and others and realize that the answers don’t matter. The others become reflections in which I see myself. I reach out, we touch. Encounter becomes home, becomes motherland. I feel around and I feel my way in, sometimes I close my eyes.

The stranger inside me, the strangeness around me, where am I, where do I belong. I ask questions, don’t need answers, breath in, sink back. A yellow butterfly by my side, the first chapter.

This project consists of photographs taken by me (as seen in this application), archive pictures, sounds I recorded on my phone and video material all gathered during a three month stay in South Korea in 2023. I created a photobook, a video piece and a sound installation from all collected material. Even though this chapter is closed, the search will continue.

The video piece and pictures of my photobook can be seen on my linked Instagram account.