Seung-eon Yi is a filmmaker working with animation collaged media, based in Seoul.
Her work draws upon memories and the lingering sensations of experiences from her everyday life. Using hand-crafted animation and painterly expressions, she conveys the abstract aspects of memory and emotion in a more intuitive and sensory manner. In doing so, she connects the deeply personal memories within her work to the audience, expanding them into new narratives and chapters.
This era of ephemeral virtual experiences and superficial emotions, she believes, has led her to question the nature of "truth," drawing her attention to the intimate emotions and memories accumulated through physical experiences. Unlike "truth" as a collective agreement, the personal, unique truth one feels, she finds, is difficult to define but possesses an enduring, ambiguous quality that resists being forgotten. She explores what sustains an individual’s sense of existence, uncovering tentative answers in the memories formed through everyday life.
Her animated films invite viewers to reflect on what remains as "truth" in our memories, even amidst the constant changes of the external world and our struggles to adapt to them. It offers an opportunity to contemplate these truths and guides the audience into a sensory meditation, encouraging them to reflect on the ephemeral yet profound essence of their own lived experiences.
->seungyi95@gmail.com
->syi7@saic.edu
->Instagram
Other Works
CV
Diaglogue : The Arriving and Vanishing
9min 36sec, 2d hand-drawn animation, 2024
Synopsis :
A woman and a man are seated at a seaside café, facing each other. And the traces of their emotions and memories pass by in
their mind along the sound of the wave.
Screening
2024 50th Seoul Independent Film Festival, Seoul, Korea
2024 20th Seoul Indie Anifest, Seoul, Korea
2023 Bucheon International Animation Festival, Bucheon, Korea
Funding
2023 Glas Animation Grant
2022 Bucheon International Animation Festival Grant
During the time of breakup, where only mundane phrases are exchanged, countless emotions and memories flow beneath the surface of that restrained moment. This project began with the aim of visualizing the condensation of emotions from that experience and the textures of memories brushed by those emotions.
While romantic relationships have been a subject and theme in countless media and works from the past to the present, most of them depict the dramatic narratives and dynamics between the individuals as the core of the story. However, in reality, breakups sometimes lack the dramatic development portrayed in dramas or movies. As a result, the breakup we ultimately face can (though not always) sneak up on us, blurred by emotions dulled by the inexorable passage of time. Just as the energy within human relationships gradually fades without any specific reason, akin to how we slowly approach a state of calmness called death within the vast flow of time, the breakup too can arrive unnoticed. In the face of this inevitable phenomenon, we and our partners exchange formal phrases, while behind us, we hold a funeral for the emotions and the other person that fade into the past.
“Dialogue : Arriving and Vanishing” departs from the conventional forms typically employed by the romance genre. It captures the time of parting between characters with a contemplative and restrained perspective, while bringing abstract subjects like emotions and memories to the surface, providing the audience with a more vivid sensory experience.
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작은 소음만이 번지는 카페. 바다가 보이는 창가는 환하지만 우울하고, 마주 앉은 연인은 서로를 바라보지 않는다. 아무것도 없는 창밖만 물끄러미 보거나, 애꿎은 커피잔만 매만지는 두 사람의 모습을 통해 이들이 마주하고 있는 것은 이별임을 직감한다. 잔잔하게 흘러가는 구름과 함께 숨죽이다 보면 의미를 파악하기 힘든 두 사람의 과거가 썰물처럼 떠내려간다. 그리고 다시 사랑과 애정이 충만했던 시간의 기억이 밀물처럼 덮쳐온다. 이별을 앞둔 이들은 아무런 말도 행동도 하지 않지만 ‘간직하고 싶어.’ 꼭 쥐면 쥘 수록 손가락 사이로 빠져나가는 모래처럼, 그려지고 지워지는 해변의 낙서처럼 순간의 장면들이 파도에 쓸려가고 언젠가부터 마주 본 기억이 없는 두 사람의 공간 역시 정리되고 있었다. 부는 바람, 쓸려오는 파도, 달리는 자전거와 사람들. 무채색의 선과 면을 통해 연인의 시간들을 정적이면서도 거칠게 표현하지만 헤어짐의 이유나 서사는 말해 주지 않는다. 어느 틈에 조각난 마음들과 억지로 끼워 맞추려 해도 어색해 그저 흘러가는 시간 속에 선명하게 남아 버리는 어두움으로 사랑과 이별을 갈음한다. 다양한 형태로 언젠가 찾아올 이별의 순간. 그 시간이 밀고 올 지금의 장면들을 우리는 각자 어떤 느낌으로 간직할 것인지 불어치는 파도 소리를 BGM 삼아 떠올려보게 된다.
박사라 / 서울독립영화제2024 기획운영팀장