If Walls Could Talk

Not the best shot today. I took the world's longest ever nap in the afternoon, and had grabbed just this one shot in the morning.
The graphics in the background decorate a huge hanging that covers the town hall where they appear to be doing some kind of renovation.
They're jazzing up the entire area and the town hall is a sad, old and shabby building that always draws away from any efforts to spruce up the area.

The norm in Korea with any 'old' building (the term often applies to structures only a few decades old) is to simply tear them down and build a more modern replacement.
This is a real bone of contention when it comes to the town hall though, as it was a pivotal part of the Gwangju Massacre of 1980. Bullet holes made in the building that day still remain, and Gwangjuvians are rightly proud of the reminder of the sacrafices their citizens made in the name of democracy.
I don't think the building has received even a new lick of paint since that fateful day, and I'll be interested to see what's in store for the building as renovations continue.


I have briefly blipped about the Gwangju Massacre before, after a visit to a memorial.
The Korean movie 'May 18' depicts what happened throughout the week of the uprising in Gwangju. It is perhaps the most cliche-ridden movie of all time, but this scene shows what happened at city hall in graphic and shocking detail (you have been warned). Whilst the movie is historical fiction, the shocking events in this scene really did take place.
The building in the blip above can be seen behind the soldiers as they face up to the demonstrators.