Migrants mingle with Koreans at Freeport

Posted on : 2012-04-30 12:57 KST Modified on : 2012-04-30 12:57 KST
New cultural space is founded to provide venue for cultural mixing and appreciation
 April 28. (provided the Beautiful Foundation)
April 28. (provided the Beautiful Foundation)

By Park Hyun-jung, staff writer

Last Saturday night, an ordinary 40 square meter space on the fourth floor of the Hyeonam Building in Seoul’s Mapo district was bustling with people from all over the world. They were there to celebrate the opening of the Free Port Migrant Culture and Art Center, a facility that anyone can enter without having their immigration documents checked.

Free Port aims to give migrants in South Korea the opportunity to create art and learn Korean culture. The center aims to provide a setting where Korean and migrant culture and arts practitioners can mingle. The attendees at Saturday’s event bopped to the music of a Mongolian DJ and cheered a display of traditional Indonesian dance.

The port represents the realization of a longstanding dream for members of the Asia Media Culture Factory (AMC Factory), which was formed two years ago by ten culture and arts practitioners from Bangladesh, Nepal, Mongolia and Myanmar in partnership with South Koreans. Its aim was to produce artistic content and train activists for migrant and multicultural issues.

It was small contributions from South Koreans that allowed their dream to become a reality. In late 2011, the group was granted 200 million won in support over three years by the Beautiful Foundation’s “Scenario for Change - Incubating”.

The head of AMC Factory, is Mahbub Alam, 35, a naturalized South Korean from Bangladesh. Alam also starred in “Bandhobi,” a film about love between a migrant worker and a South Korean student.

Born the seventh of eleven children in a poor family, he decided to travel to South Korea in 1999 to earn money. He had planned to return home after working for three years, but changed his mind after being mistreated as a migrant worker.

In 2003, he took part in a year-long sit-in protest against the deportation of migrant workers in front of Seoul’s Myeong-dong Cathedral, an experience that led him to develop an interest in culture and the arts.

“After seeing how our views went unreported, I realized the importance of the media,” he said. “I studied video production and made documentaries and music videos, and I ended up starring in a film myself.”

Some South Koreans expressed their displeasure after Jasmine Lee, a Filipina who immigrated to South Korea through marriage, was elected to the National Assembly in April as a New Frontier Party proportional representation lawmaker. Alam himself received death threats after the release of “Bandhobi.”

“Everyone likes different kinds of food and fashion,” he said. “Each and every person is ‘multicultural.’ It’s a shame people can’t acknowledge other cultures, races, or minorities like they acknowledge other people’s tastes.”

In Alam’s view, the most important thing in acknowledging differences is communication. This was also the reason Free Port was opened near Hongik University, an area with a large artistic presence.

“There are spaces where migrants from different countries meet frequently, but I saw a need for a place where people could go beyond country-based communities to interact with each other and communicate with Koreans,” he said. “We also want to assemble materials on the third world, Asia, and migrants and share them with people with an interest in cultural diversity.”

Even though it receives support from the Beautiful Foundation, Free Port still faces the daunting task of standing alone as a sustainable space. AMC Factory is currently taking donations for the center’s operational fund and accepting support in the form of items, including videos and sound equipment.

 

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