Desired Desires

I just suddenly started writing and didn’t realize it had become this long… I wrote without any conclusion. Sometimes I feel that the connotation of “desire,” even within art institutions, is inevitably linked with negativity. Often, the desire to live, to be loved, to be happy, and to experience beauty—whether sexual or sacred—is dismissed as a chaotic or naive expression.

"Pure" babies demonstrate these desires in a raw, almost monstrous way. For instance, the desire to devour all the knowledge in the world is intimately tied to the desire to survive. However, as icons of “purity,” such emotions are considered something to be protected—until they are eventually stained by so-called “dark desires.” Of course, a “pure” baby, who has neither freedom nor the ability to think about freedom, should not be compared to the desires of an adult in a “beautifully constructed society” that must be preserved for consensual civilization.

The waves of anger we’ve seen recently across many countries seem to stem from a lack of satisfaction in desire. And I believe this desire—the desire to live as a human being—is the most basic form of fulfillment. In my opinion, the negativity associated with desire doesn’t come from desire itself, but from a lack of desire. The backlash caused by this poverty of desire leads to anger, fury, and eventually abandonment. We can see this especially among young people in East Asia (I’m speaking primarily about South Korea and Japan), where young people’s desires are often rejected or denied. This is what concerns me most right now. Increasingly, desires become disguised as pure anger, as if anger alone could answer everything.

However, to express desire does not mean to destroy everything with rage. Rather, it means to lay the foundation to pursue those desires—something I believe to be the most potent stimulus for life. Babies do not cry out of anger; they cry to fulfill their basic needs.

There must be a reason why these disguises are happening. But it’s impossible to identify one single cause behind today’s social issues—and of course, I’m not an expert in social or economic theory, so it wouldn’t make sense for me to try to conclude that here. However, I study communication, especially in visual and social contexts. Therefore, I believe it is worthwhile to approach this issue from the perspective of desire. I believe in the power of desires—but unless we truly understand what is desired and what we want, that power cannot show its full potential or possibility.