Lifestyle - The Korea Times

Run Turtle Marathon this Sunday

Take part in the Turtle Marathon for a stroll around Mt. Nam and maybe win some prizes, too. The Hankook Ilbo, a sister paper of The Korea Times, is hosting the 415th Turtle Marathon with KESCO (Korea Electrical Safety Corporation). It will begin at 8 a.m. on Sunday in front of the National Theater's outdoor plaza. Since 1978 the monthly event has drawn more than 120,000 people. Park Cheol-gon, CEO of KESCO will lead this month’s walkathon. The winners of the 2011 Miss Korea pageant as well as KESCO goodwill ambassadors along with actresses Choi Ran and Park Min-ha will participate. After the seven-kilometer walk, popular TV presenter Lee Sang-yong will host the prize draw. This month’s prizes include tickets for the musical by the girl group T-ara, sneakers from FILA, kimchi refrigerators, cosmetics and more. For students attending Korean schools, , if they collect litter along the paths of Mt. Nam the marathon can give them a certificate for two hours of community service. Admission is free. For more information, visit turtle.hankooki.com. When: Feb. 19, me

Feb 17, 2012

Classical Concerts

Classical Concerts Prades Casals Festival in Korea Seoul Arts Center* March 1 The renowned Pablo Casals Festival marks its 60th anniversary this year. Participants to this music festival will perform at Seoul Arts Center on March 1. Michel Lethiec, the most famous musician in the Pablo Casals Festival in Prades will be in Korea this year. Cellist Arto Noras, violist Gerard Poulet and Hartmut Rohde, Korean musicians violinist Baek Ju-young, Kim So-ock, cellist Song Young and pianist Park Jong-hwa will also join the concert. Tickets cost 11,000 to 66,000 won. For more information, call 1544-5142. Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Seoul Arts Center* Feb. 21-22 The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (RCO) will perform on Feb. 21-22 under the baton of conductor Chung Myung-whun at Seoul Arts Center. The Korean maestro will be leading a program of Kodaly’s “Dances of Galanta,” Mendelssohn’s violin concerto and “Concerto for Orchestra” by Bartok. This will be followed by another concert on Feb. 22 with a program of the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 with London-based pianist Ki

Feb 16, 2012

Clubs and Art Exhibitions

Clubs The Octagon Nonhyun-dong This club recently opened near the New Hilltop Hotel, Nonhyun-dong. The venue offers a club stage, lounge bar and dining area. Leave via exit 4 of Hakdong Station on subway line 7. Call (02) 516-8847 for more information. Underlounge Seoul Hongdae or Hongik University Area This is the local club of a hip Japanese chain that also has a branch in Shanghai, located in the famous clubbing area Hongdae. Located near the main entrance of Hongik University. Call (02) 325-5715 or visit www.underlounge.kr. Club Volume Itaewon Located in the Crown Hotel near Noksapyeong Station, Club Volume offers the finest venue for specially themed weekly events. Club Volume was listed by TIME magazine among the “10 things to do in 24 hours in Seoul.” Call 1544-2635 for information. Le Nuit Blanche Cheongdam-dong Formerly Club Answer, Le Nuit Blanche is a posh restaurant, theater and club. Located in front of the Hotel Prima in Cheongdam-dong, Le Nuit Blanche offers Cirque du Soleil-type performances. World-class DJs from all over the

Feb 16, 2012

Facing the unbearable at ’Dutch Magical Realism’

By Noh Hyun-gi In celebration of 50 years of a diplomatic relationship between Korea and the Netherlands, “Dutch Magical Realism: Past toward Contemporary” opened at the Museum of Art (MoA) at Seoul National University in collaboration with ING Bank Korea on Friday. Despite the emphasis on the artistic movement that started in the 1920s, the exhibit is, in reality, about everything unbearable in life — aging, loneliness, stillness and fear. The impeccably smooth surfaces and exacting brushwork of the Dutch artists have brought ugly moments to eerie beauty. The unadorned interior of MoA with a high ceiling and glass openings offers the ideal environment to submerge into the unsettling serenity. Wrinkled women gaze out from three paintings by Theo l’Herminez — “Woman With A Cat,” “Untitled” and “Party” — at the beginning of the show. Against the backdrop of dark green, the skeleton like faces with sneers seem to confront the viewers saying, “Go on, keep looking at me; I won’t flinch.” Their perfect hair and flashy style repel the viewer and remind o

Feb 13, 2012

Swelling social satire scheduled for March

By Kwaak Je-yup This spring season will receive an unusual addition to its line-up in a rule-bending comedy from the National Theater Company of Korea (NTCK). Billed as the “most incredible comedy on this planet” by the company, “Balloon” has a blunt and almost surreal ― if not absurd ― focus on an outsized male reproductive organ. “[The work] cannot be explained in words,” said Lee Sang-woo executive producer and theater veteran at the Friday press conference. “I wanted to defy the convention of comedy, ignore its formula, pull out all the stops… it will be a comedy with a lot of (slapstick) movement.” Starting in March, the latest original play by Go Jae-gwi follows Pfc. Go through an unlikely sequence of events that unfolds after one of his testicles is injured ― and swells to an outrageous proportion. After medical tests, the organ is found to contain a miraculous panacea, sparking an international manhunt for the low-ranked soldier. The government puts him under tight security and orders scientific experimentations on him to make the body part even bigger. The pr

Feb 12, 2012

To be sold or destroyed

By Noh Hyun-gi Post-impressionism master Vincent Van Gogh sold but one painting, “The Red Vinyard,” during his lifetime, near his death. Pursuing art is not a glorious path, especially in Korea where art collecting is at a budding stage. A group of 19 artists and three curators are making a passive-aggressive statement through “Zerglinttae _ Operation: Can’t Wait Any Longer” at Insa Art Space, Wonseo-dong, Seoul. At the end of this exhibition on Feb. 25, all unsold works will be destroyed on the spot by their creators. The process will be filmed and posted online. The participants are in Arko Art Center’s professional cultivation program for rising artists. At a press conference on Monday, Kim Ah-mi, one of the curators, explained, “During the program, we discussed the reality of life of artists in depth and wanted to articulate our opinions through this exhibit.” No one is shy to talk about money here; visitors are given a layout of the three-floor gallery with prices of all 72 pieces which ranges from 1,000 to 3,000,000 won. The diversified collection includes oil, p

Feb 10, 2012

Recent books

Share your memories: Korean sports history Kim Hak-gyun, Nam Jung-seok, Bae Sung-min; econ: 339pp., 15,000 won This new book by three sports aficionados does exactly what the title suggests: It shares sports memories in Korean sports history. The authors have different occupations but came together through their common love of sports to compile the collection of essays. The pieces are divided by sections and laid out on a loosely chronological order, from the incipient stages of sports after the emancipation from Japan to more recent developments like PyeongChang’s successful bid to host the Winter Olympics. Each chapter mostly focuses on stars, and occasionally teams or moments, accompanied by photographs and briefly summarizes their achievements and the impact they had on society. Readers will find familiar names, from old-timers such as wrestler Kim Il, footballer Cha Bum-kun and more recent stars such as pitcher Park Chan-ho, golfer Park Se-ri and figure skater Kim Yu-na. Though somewhat disorganized (it does not mention which author wrote which piece),

Feb 10, 2012By Do Je-hae

Korea to open cultural center in Hungary

Korea will open a new cultural center in Budapest, Hungary, this week, the culture ministry here said Thursday. The culture center is scheduled to open on Friday in the center of the Hungarian capital with a ceremony to be attended by about 100 dignitaries from both countries, including South Korea's Culture Minister Choe Kwang-shik. It will become Korea's 22nd cultural center worldwide and the eighth in Europe, joining centers in France, Britain, Germany, Russia, Poland, Spain and Turkey, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said. The ministry plans to increase the number of overseas Korean cultural centers to 28 by the end of this year. The recent popularity of Korean pop music and TV dramas, known as "hallyu," has increased the world's interest in Korean culture. The boom has been strong mainly in other Asian nations such as Japan, China and Taiwan in recent years, but expanded to become popular in Europe and North and South American nations last year. The two-story cultural center will feature a library and halls for sampling Korean food, learning the Korean

Feb 9, 2012

Swedish Museum to open Korean hall

By Kwaak Je-yup Ostasiatiska museet (The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities) is opening a hall entirely dedicated to Korean artifacts Saturday in its building in Stockholm, the Korea Foundation (KF) announced Wednesday. The cultural affiliate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has worked with the Swedish museum for three years to culminate in this brand new space dedicated to Korean heritage. From its own collection of 350 objects, about 160 will be on display, on a rotating basis. The emphasis during the inaugural exhibition will be on the art of porcelain. Hwang Doo-jin, an architect renowned for “hanok,” or traditional Korean house, residence restorations in the central Seoul area of Bukchon, took charge of redesigning the 100-square-meter space. He will attend the opening ceremony alongside King Carl XVI Gustaf, his wife Queen Silvia, and other dignitaries. The Swedish connection to ancient Korean cultures has personal significance to the king. In 1926, 33 years before the formation of bilateral recognition and ties, his late grandfather Gustaf VI Adolf p

Feb 8, 2012

Swedish museum to open Korean exhibition room this weekend

Sweden's Museum of East Asia will open a special exhibition room for Korean antiquities this weekend, a Korean government agency in charge of supporting exchanges with foreign countries said Wednesday. The Korean room, built with financial support from the Korea Foundation affiliated with the foreign ministry, is scheduled to open on Saturday, the agency said. About 160 of some 350 Korean artifacts owned by the museum, chiefly ceramics, will be displayed in the 100 square meters of space on the second floor of the museum in Stockholm, it added. The Korean room was designed by Hwang Du-jin, a famous architect of hanok, or traditional Korean house. "I tried to present the modest beauty of South Korea, reviving the spirit of building hanok focused on harmony with the natural environment," the agency quoted Hwang as saying in a release. The foundation has provided US$350,000 over the past three years for the construction of the exhibition room. The planned opening will increase the number of places exhibiting Korean antiquities in foreign museums built with support fro