Lifestyle - The Korea Times

When airports meet contemporary Korean art

Installation view of the group exhibition, “Direct from Antarctica and the Arctic to Incheon Airport,” at Incheon International Airport / Courtesy of ARKOBy Park Han-solThe terminals of Korea's two major airports ― Incheon International Airport and Gimpo International Airport ― have transformed into unlikely spaces filled with the country's contemporary art.Running to coincide with leading art fairs Frieze and Kiaf Seoul, the three concurrent exhibitions sprawled across the airports provide inbound travelers a peek into the diversity of the Korean art scene ― from Nam June Paik's TV installation to works born from today's media artists' trips to the polar regions.As suggested by its title “Direct from Antarctica and the Arctic to Incheon Airport,” the exhibition, staged in the departure hall of Terminal 2 until Nov. 30, shows seven artists who took part in the annual polar residency program offered by Arts Council Korea (ARKO) and the Korea Polar Research Institute since 2011.These creatives ― who either stayed at King Sejong Station in Antarctica or traveled

Aug 6, 2023By Park Han-sol

When airports meet contemporary Korean art

INTERVIEW Sejong Center's 'One Dance' mesmerizes New Yorkers

Ahn Ho-sang, CEO of Sejong Center for the Performing Arts / Courtesy of Sejong Center for the Performing ArtsSejong Center CEO talks about giving modern twist to old traditionsBy Kwak Yeon-sooWhen watching the performance of “One Dance,” created by the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, one is truly mesmerized by the ability of the dancers to perform elaborate choreography while being perfectly in sync with each other.In July, the Seoul Metropolitan Dance Theater (SMDT), one of the nine resident companies at Sejong Center, wowed New York's performing arts scene by presenting “One Dance,” or “Ilmu” in Korean, at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts during Korean Arts Week.“One Dance,” which debuted in May last year, is a contemporary reinterpretation of the Korean traditional dance from “Jongmyo Jeryeak,” a royal ceremonial performance that combines instrumental music, singing and dancing.Sejong Center CEO Ahn Ho-sang appointed Jung Ku-ho, a creative director who has made a name for himself in fashion and the arts,

Aug 3, 2023By Kwak Yeon-soo

[INTERVIEW] Sejong Center's 'One Dance' mesmerizes New Yorkers

REVIEW Musical 'The Days': ode to late singer Kim Kwang-seok

Scenes from the musical “The Days” / Courtesy of INSIGHT EntertainmentBy Dong Sun-hwaThe musical “The Days,” is a love letter to the late folk-rock singer Kim Kwang-seok (1964-96), one of the most prominent musicians here in the late 1980s and the early 1990s. “The Days” is a jukebox musical featuring his smash hits, ranging from “Though I Loved You” (1991) to “A Letter from a Private” (1991). For every performance of “The Days,” its production team leaves one seat empty, which is reserved for Kim. The singer, who debuted in 1987 as part of the activist folk band Noraereul Channeun Saramdeul (meaning “people looking for music”), passed away at the age of 31 in 1996. Set in 2012, the musical follows Cha Jung-hak, a presidential guard who searches for the president's daughter and her bodyguard after they go missing. As Cha follows their trail, he realizes that he faced a similar incident 20 years prior, when his colleague Kang Mu-young and his client ― a mysterious female interpreter ― disappeared abrup

Aug 2, 2023By Dong Sun-hwa

[REVIEW] Musical 'The Days': ode to late singer Kim Kwang-seok

Frieze, Kiaf Seoul to offer array of special programs accompanying art fair

Hong Lee Hyun-sook's "In the Neighborhood of Seokgwangsa" (2021) / Courtesy of the artistBy Park Han-solFrieze Seoul has announced a string of specially curated programs of music, films and exhibitions, as well as talks and soirees that will be featured as part of its upcoming second edition in September.Following its successful debut in Asia last year, the global art fair will return to COEX in southern Seoul from Sept. 6 to 9, this time with a stronger lineup of Asia-based galleries. Among some 120 participating exhibitors, over 40 percent of them are from the region, according to the organizer.An array of special on- and off-site projects are set to run alongside the main show throughout the capital city.Frieze Film, curated by Kim Sung-woo and Sungah Serena Choo, spotlights 14 Korean artists working in time-based media ― including Jun So-jung, Hong Lee Hyun-sook and Kim Hyo-jae.Titled “It was the way of walking through narrative,” the program will host screenings of their video works at four non-profit venues across the city and on Frieze's official website from Aug.

Jul 28, 2023By Park Han-sol

Frieze, Kiaf Seoul to offer array of special programs accompanying art fair

INTERVIEW From marriage migrants to dispatched nurses, photographer captures diasporic women's stories in portraits

Kim Ok-sun's "bsp_ahs130" (2023), left, and "bsp_dnr937" (2023) from her "Brides, Sara" series / Courtesy of the artistBy Park Han-solIn November 1910, the year Korea fell under Japanese colonial occupation, 23-year-old Choi Sara climbed aboard a ship en route to Hawaii. In her hand was a black-and-white photograph of a man, whom she had never spoken to or met in person.The man in the picture was one of thousands of Korean immigrants who arrived in Honolulu years earlier as cheap labor to work on the sugarcane plantations. He was also Choi's husband-to-be.The couple tied the knot shortly after her arrival. Choi thus became Korea's first “picture bride” ― a term referring to women who married immigrant laborers in Hawaii in the early 20th century after the prospective brides and grooms saw each other only through photographs exchanged via a matchmaker.From 1910 to 1924, more than 1,000 Korean picture brides left their homes to begin a new life in a foreign land they knew nothing about. Some did so out of familial obligation or economic concerns, but there were others who h

Jul 27, 2023By Park Han-sol

[INTERVIEW] From marriage migrants to dispatched nurses, photographer captures diasporic women's stories in portraits

REVIEW 'The Phantom of the Opera' now lives beneath the Charlotte Theater in Seoul

A scene from the musical, "The Phantom of the Opera" / Courtesy of S&COMusical 'The Phantom of the Opera' to run through Nov. 17By Holly ChikThe legendary musical “The Phantom of the Opera” is back in Seoul with a top-notch Korean cast and breathtaking live orchestral music.The Korean-language version of the performance is making a strong third-time comeback with glamorous costumes, creative set design and engaging choreography. “It gives me great joy that The Phantom's story will be told in South Korea once again in the Korean language,” the composer Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote in the playbill. He also noted that the show's debut in 2001 attracted over 300,000 people, and a successful return followed in 2009.A scene from the musical, "The Phantom of the Opera" / Courtesy of S&COAdapted from the namesake novel by French writer Gaston Leroux, the award-winning musical is set in the grand Paris Opera House, where the enigmatic Phantom resides in a labyrinthine lair hidden beneath the theater. The Phantom also assumes the role of a mysterious singing teache

Jul 25, 2023By Holly Chik

[REVIEW] 'The Phantom of the Opera' now lives beneath the Charlotte Theater in Seoul

Contemporary history museum holds exhibition on 'hallyu'

Visitors look at LP records on display at an exhibition, titled "The Pop Culture We Loved, and Rise of the Korean Wave," at the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History in Seoul, Thursday. YonhapAn exhibition is under way at a national history museum in Seoul providing a perspective into what has shaped today's "hallyu," the global boom of Korean pop culture.The National Museum of Korean Contemporary History in Seoul opened the exhibition, titled "The Pop Culture We Loved, and Rise of the Korean Wave," on Wednesday.The exhibit, which runs through Sept. 3, recounts how contemporary Korean culture has been influenced by foreign pop culture from around the world, including American, Japanese and Hong Kong pop culture, and has risen to draw global attention."This is basically not an exhibition to promote hallyu or show its history," Kwon Gi-jun, the curator in charge of the exhibition, said during a press conference held at the museum Thursday to promote the show. "As a Korean history museum, we intended to suggest a new perspective as an answer to a question of how hallyu has been

Jul 20, 2023

Contemporary history museum holds exhibition on 'hallyu'

How state-led art collection in Rome spotlights contemporary Italy beyond its Renaissance past

Celebrated Futurist Umberto Boccioni's bronze cast “Unique Forms of Continuity in Space” (1913), center, is on display at Art Sonje Center in central Seoul as part of the exhibition “The Grand Italian Vision: The Farnesina Collection.” Courtesy of Embassy of Italy in Seoul, Italian Cultural Institute in Seoul, Art Sonje CenterItalian foreign ministry's historic Farnesina Collection showcased in SeoulBy Park Han-solAncient Rome, the Renaissance and the Baroque ― such are the keywords that immediately spring to mind when speaking of Italy's sweeping artistic heritage.But beyond the country's long-standing reputation as the nursery of Western art, how many are versed in its modern and contemporary influences and achievements?“Italian culture did not stop at the Renaissance, of course. It moved on as it always does. Art and creativity keep moving on (to) reflect cultural and social changes,” remarked Alessandro de Pedys, director general for public and cultural diplomacy at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, in his a

Jul 20, 2023By Park Han-sol

How state-led art collection in Rome spotlights contemporary Italy beyond its Renaissance past

Italian diplomat introduces contemporary side of Rome

Meditative minimalist abstraction and otherworldly landscape art, side by side at Pace Gallery

Installation view of Huong Dodinh's solo exhibition, "VIE | VIDE," at Pace Gallery Seoul / NewsisHuong Dodinh's 'VIE | VIDE,' Matthew Day Jackson's 'Counter-Earth' concurrently on view in SeoulBy Park Han-solA scene of pure “luminosity and brilliance.” That is how Huong Dodinh recalls her very first encounter with snowfall in 1950s France.It seemed that the whole earth was swallowed up by the infinite stretch of whiteness overnight ― an unrecognizable change in the eyes of a young Vietnamese girl, who had to flee from her home country at the age of eight with her family after the outbreak of the First Indochina War (1946-54).Weeks later, however, when the snow began to melt, it suddenly revealed the subtleties of everything underneath it that was still pulsating with life and colors. The imagery has never left her to this day.Thus began the 78-year-old's lifelong artistic quest to transfer the profoundly luminescent shades of white onto canvas ― reminiscent of a snowfield whose seemingly empty surface hides the vital force beneath.On view at “VIE | VIDE” at Pa

Jul 17, 2023By Park Han-sol

Meditative minimalist abstraction and otherworldly landscape art, side by side at Pace Gallery

Veteran stage actor slams Son Suk-ku over likening stage acting to 'fake acting'

Actor Nam Myeong-ryeol / YonhapBy Kwak Yeon-sooVeteran actor Nam Myeong-ryeol criticized actor Son Suk-ku for making controversial comments about stage directors instructing actors to do “fake acting” onstage. At the press conference for the play “Army on the Tree” last month, Son talked about why he transitioned from theater to film and television. “Army on the Tree” marks Son's return to theater after he last starred in the 2014 play “Love is Burning.” Until recently, he has appeared in hit drama series such as “My Liberation Notes” (2022), Disney+ series “Big Bet” (2022-2023) as well as action thriller “The Roundup” (2022). He is set to reprise his role in the second season of the popular Netflix series “D.P.,” which drops on July 28.“I remember one time, a play script said 'whisper love (to a co-actor).' I said, 'I don't understand how to do this unless somebody gives me a microphone to amplify my voice. If the audience cannot hear my whisper, it's fake acting. So I decided to mo

Jul 16, 2023By Kwak Yeon-soo

Arts & Theater