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Lee Hae-rin

Korea Times K-Culture Reporter

Lee Hae-rin is a City Desk reporter at The Korea Times, covering social issues, tourism and taekwondo. She is passionate about speaking up for the rights of minorities, including women, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities and animals as well as discovering the latest makgeolli trend in town. Feel free to reach her at lhr@koreatimes.co.kr.

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Arts & Theater

Comedian Kim Dong-ha set for 1st Japan solo show

Comedian Kim Dong-ha will hold his first solo stand-up comedy show in Japan next month, becoming the first Korean stand-up comedian to stage an individual live performance there, his agency, Meta Comedy, said Wednesday. Titled “Kim Dong-ha: Oishii Stand-up Comedy Live,” the show will take place at 6 p.m. on Oct. 24 at the fifth-floor auditorium of Mindan Osaka. The title, “Oishii,” means “delicious” in Japanese. The show is expected to combine Kim’s observational humor about everyday life with sharp satire and spontaneous exchanges with audiences. Korean is expected to be the main language, targeting an audience of Korean-speaking Japanese and Korean immigrants. Korean comedians have increasingly performed solo shows outside Korea recently, performing in the Korean language. Japan has long been regarded by Korean comedians and audiences as a more mature comedy market. Japanese variety-show formats, sketch traditions and performance styles had an influence on the development of modern Korean comedy. The Osaka performance follows Kim’s North American tour, “Made in Korea,

1d agoBy Lee Hae-rin
Comedian Kim Dong-ha set for 1st Japan solo show
Books

Irish author Danielle McLaughlin on exchange with Korean students and compelling visit to Jeju

When Irish writer Danielle McLaughlin received an invitation to visit Korea, she was deep into Nobel laureaute author Han Kang’s “We Do Not Part” (2021), a novel whose reckoning with the Jeju April 3 massacre had unsettled and moved her. The timing felt like an invitation within an invitation. “The minute I was invited, I knew I wanted to go,” she said during an interview with The Korea Times after leading a creating writing workshop at Korea University on Monday. The Cork-based author, known for the award-winning short-story collection “Dinosaurs on Other Planets” (2015) and the novel “The Art of Falling,” (2021) visited Seoul as part of the Irish Embassy’s inititive to bring contemporary Irish writers to Korea. The embassy began its exchange program in 2024 with the help of Dublin City Libraries, the public-library network run by Dublin City Council. At Korea University on Monday, more than 50 students — many encountering McLaughlin’s work for the first time — packed into a classroom for a two-hour creative writing workshop. The room’s enthusiasm was striking.

2d agoBy Lee Hae-rin
Irish author Danielle McLaughlin on exchange with Korean students and compelling visit to Jeju
Arts & Theater

Seoul Performing Arts Festival to stage reading from Han Kang novel

What could an opera about an imaginary war, a science fiction play about a father and daughter separated by space and a dance piece challenging ballet traditions possibly all have in common? They are all part of the 26th Seoul Performing Arts Festival (SPAF). The festival invites audiences to put down their phones and experience art together in theaters, stepping away from the personalized digital content selected by algorithms. Beginning on Oct. 6, the annual festival will bring 20 productions spanning theater, dance, music and interdisciplinary performances to major venues across the city under the theme “Multiverse of Art.” “Rather than seeking a single beauty or a fixed answer, this year’s ‘Multiverse of Art’ brings together different perspectives, senses and forms of artistic creation, inviting audiences out of the isolation of individual screens and into the shared space of the theater,” artistic director Choi Kyu said at a press conference in Seoul, Tuesday. A major highlight will be “Oiseau,” a staged reading of the first chapter of Nobel laureaute Han Kang’s

2d agoBy Lee Hae-rin
Seoul Performing Arts Festival to stage reading from Han Kang novel
Arts & Theater

Taiwan-China row at Gwangju Biennale could have been avoided

JEONNAM-GWANGJU SPECIAL METROPOLITAN CITY — The "Taiwan Pavilion" dispute that overshadowed the opening of the 16th Gwangju Biennale last weekend wasn't a mere display of diplomatic tension between China and Taiwan that erupted randomly at an art event. It laid bare a deep-running problem with one of Asia’s best-known contemporary art event organizers and raised a question: Is the organizer's management system working? The biennale, launched in 1995 in the spirit of the May 18 Gwangju Democratic Uprising in 1980, has grown into Korea’s largest and Asia’s oldest and best contemporary art biennale. It has more than 10 billion won ($7.44 million) in public funding and related spending committed to each edition. Its 2026 operating budget was set at about 14.3 billion won, excluding a separate 1 billion won for replenishing its basic assets. It seems that the problem boils down to its precarious staffing model. A team manager-level Gwangju Biennale Foundation employee on a short-term contract told The Korea Times that the biennale’s core working staff numbers only around 30, with t

Sep 12, 2026By Lee Hae-rin
Taiwan-China row at Gwangju Biennale could have been avoided
Arts & Theater

K-ART FOCUS For Hejum Bä, bitcoin and breastfeeding are not so far apart

What do cryptocurrency charts, breastfeeding and mother conches have in common? For Korean painter Hejum Bä, the answer is not merely an unlikely combination. It is an invitation to look again at the abstract forces already shaping everyday life. In her recent solo exhibition, “Awakened,” Bä brings together the fluctuating lines of crypto markets, the unruly physicality of milk and pregnancy, and the mysteries of ocean. The show, presented by Italian gallery MASSIMODECARLO at Mahkjip, a hanok-based space in Seoul’s Samcheong neighborhood, ran from Aug. 29 through Sept. 5 during Seoul Art Week. It marked Bä’s first solo exhibition in Seoul since joining the gallery’s roster last year. The show featured eight new paintings, including “Milk of a Bitcoiner-Mother” (2026), “There Is an Ocean in the Pregnant Belly” (2024-2026) and “I Envy the Mother Conches” (2026). Finding a common theme in unlikely combinations defines her identity as an artist. Born in Seoul in 1987, Bä studied painting and printmaking at Ewha Womans University and at the State Academy of Art and De

Sep 11, 2026By Lee Hae-rin
[K-ART FOCUS] For Hejum Bä, bitcoin and breastfeeding are not so far apart
  • K-ART FOCUS For Koo Jeong-a, missing is part of seeing
Arts & Theater

Seoul dance troupe's contemporary take on shamanic rituals

Seoul Metropolitan Dance Theatre’s new work, “Gut: Whispering Steps,” turned little-known shamanic rituals in Korea into a contemporary meditation on suffering, pain and the difficult work of saving oneself. Known as "gut," shamanic ritual was a communication tool between the living and the deceased. A shaman served as a helper in the communication. Usually, descendants sought health, luck and suffering-free life from their ancestors. Gut from Seoul and neighboring regions, in particular, offers a unique session called "mugamseogi," during which a client gets dressed like a shaman and performs a spontaneous dance. The premise was simple but forceful: Blessings were not merely granted to those who wait for them. They must be pursued through one’s body and will. That became the source of inspiration for the dance production. The new work, created by Seoul Metropolitan Dance Theatre's artistic director Yun Hea-joung, unfolds the pain, memories, healing and liberation of human life through five variations of tears, each tied to “obangsaek,” the five cardinal colors in Korean trad

Sep 11, 2026By Lee Hae-rin
Seoul dance troupe's contemporary take on shamanic rituals
Arts & Theater

Comedian Kim Byung-sun finds laughs despite language barrier on Mexico's stand-up scene

“Hablo español.” The words are simple: “I speak Spanish.” But when Kim Byung-sun opens with it before a Mexican audience, the room often laughs before he has delivered a conventional punch line. Part of the joke is the surprise of seeing a Korean man walk onto a local open-mic stage in Latin America and announce in Spanish that he can speak the language. Part of the joke is his own self-awareness that even by his own account, his Spanish is far from flawless. “People who majored in Spanish would probably say I cannot speak Spanish well,” Kim said with a laugh during an interview with The Korea Times, Monday. “My grammar is terrible. My vocabulary is a mess. But they cannot ignore me, because they cannot do what I do onstage.” Known online as Comico, Kim has built a distinctly transnational career through Spanish-language videos and stand-up comedy. Based in Mexico City, he performs for local audiences, tests jokes at open mics and makes online content for his YouTube channel, which has 1 million subscribers. He is among the very few Koreans — and possibly the only one w

Sep 8, 2026By Lee Hae-rin
Comedian Kim Byung-sun finds laughs despite language barrier on Mexico's stand-up scene
Arts & Theater

Frieze, Kiaf Seoul point to Korea's recovering art market

In the art world, sales are often the barometer of a successful art fair. A successful fair is typically measured by a handful of blockbuster deals signed during the event. This year’s Frieze Seoul and Kiaf Seoul, which closed on Sunday, sent a more nuanced message. The fairs did not see any ultra-high-value sales like those that made headlines during Frieze Seoul’s 2022 debut, but they sent a clear enough signal that Korea’s art market was regaining its footing, with a broader range of buyers, price points and artists. The fifth Frieze Seoul, held at Coex from Sept. 2-5, drew more than 70,000 visitors from 54 countries and regions, its most internationally diverse audience to date, according to the fair organizers. Some 178 museums and institutional representatives from 25 countries also attended, marking another record. Likewise, homegrown Kiaf Seoul attracted about 80,000 visitors to its 25th edition until the last day on Sunday, bringing together 175 galleries from 18 countries. Fair organizers said attendance on its opening Wednesday and Thursday saw a 5 to 10 percent jump fro

Sep 7, 2026By Lee Hae-rin
Frieze, Kiaf Seoul point to Korea's recovering art market
Arts & Theater

Gwangju Biennale opens with call for change across time, scale

JEONNAM-GWANGJU METROPOLITAN CITY — The 16th Gwangju Biennale began its opening events Friday, ahead of its public opening Saturday, with an exhibition that invites visitors to see change not as a sudden break, but as a gradual process shaping individuals, communities, landscapes and the planet. Titled “You Must Change Your Life,” the biennale's main exhibition runs through Nov. 15 at the Gwangju Biennale Exhibition Hall. Curated by Ho Tzu Nyen with Che Kyong-fa, Park Ga-hee and Brian Kuan Wood, the exhibition brings together 43 artists and groups in five galleries within the venue. The title, drawn from the final line of Rainer Maria Rilke’s poem “Archaic Torso of Apollo,” serves less as an instruction than an open-ended provocation, according to Ho. “It tells you that something must change, but it does not tell you how, why or what you should become,” Ho said during a press conference. “It is a demand without a program.” That ambiguity takes on a collective meaning in Jeonnam-Gwangju Special Metropolitan City, a city defined by the 1980 pro-democracy movement and it

Sep 4, 2026By Lee Hae-rin
Gwangju Biennale opens with call for change across time, scale
Arts & Theater

K-ART FOCUS For Koo Jeong-a, missing is part of seeing

Koo Jeong-a makes art from what people usually fail to notice: the lingering trace of scent, a glow that emerges only after darkness falls and a crystal that flashes only when a viewer happens to stand in the right place. Her new solo exhibition at Leeum Museum of Art, “KOO JEONG A: OUSSSMOS,” turns that preoccupation into a museum-wide experience. On a rainy afternoon, the first challenge was simply to locate 50 crystals hidden in the dark gabion wall outside the gallery — a task that seemed designed to test whether looking is the same as seeing. In the work, titled “A Reality Upgrade & End Alone,” (2003/2026) the crystals refused to announce themselves. Only after shifting position and looking again did a small flash of light appear. That fleeting discovery — or the possibility of never finding it at all — is integral to her work. “Seeing is understanding,” Koo said at a press event Monday for her new exhibition. “I think seeing is knowing.” Yet the artist added that she cannot compel viewers to understand her works; she only hopes they will find their own way tow

Sep 4, 2026By Lee Hae-rin
[K-ART FOCUS] For Koo Jeong-a, missing is part of seeing
  • K-ART FOCUS For Hejum Bä, bitcoin and breastfeeding are not so far apart
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