Bikini Words at CineGlobe CERN

BIKINI WORDS continues its festival journey and will screen at CineGlobe during the 2017 edition in Geneva. The film is part of the Responsibility programme and will be shown between March 21 and March 26, 2017.

CineGlobe takes place at CERN and celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. Being part of a festival that connects film, science, and society feels like a good context for this project.

About the Film

BIKINI WORDS looks at a specific vocabulary that emerged among factory workers in South Korea during the 1970s and 1980s. Rapid industrialization changed how people lived, worked, and spoke.

I focused on eight words that reflect those changes. Each term points to a lived experience shaped by factory life and dense urban conditions. The film connects language with space and memory rather than relying on explanation.

Why CineGlobe

CineGlobe has a long-standing interest in how science, society, and responsibility intersect. That focus aligns closely with what Bikini Words tries to do.

The film does not approach history as an archive. Instead, it looks at how people named new realities while adapting to unfamiliar environments. Language becomes a record of social change.

Screening Details

BIKINI WORDS WILL SCREEN AT THE GLOBE OF SCIENCE AND INNOVATION IN MEYRIN, SWITZERLAND.

SCREENING DATES AND TIMES:

MARCH 22, 2017 AT 18:00
MARCH 26, 2017 AT 12:30

VENUE:

GLOBE OF SCIENCE AND INNOVATION
SQUARE GALILEO GALILEI
ROUTE DE MEYRIN 385
1217 MEYRIN, SWITZERLAND

The Context Behind the Words

Factory life during South Korea’s industrial boom often meant shared rooms, long shifts, and little privacy. For many workers, this was a sudden break from earlier ways of living. A new vocabulary developed to describe these conditions. The words carried humor, frustration, and resilience. They also reflected how quickly everyday life was changing.

Looking Back From Seoul

Living and working in Seoul, I continue to see traces of this period in the city’s layout and language. Many of the spaces from that time are disappearing, but the words remain. Bikini Words is one attempt to hold onto that layer of history. Screening the film at CineGlobe adds another perspective to the conversation, one that connects language, responsibility, and collective memory.