There is this very nifty law in South Korea that states that every high-rise building has to have a piece of art in front of it. The city being a bit of a concrete jungle, this has led to Seoul being the most extensive outdoor art gallery on earth. Without exaggerating. It actually seems like people have taken this law into their own hands, and it is hard to walk one block without seeing a sculpture of some kind. There is a park in Seoul playing host to 200 bizarre sculptures from all over the world. 
Aside from the bazillion sculptures and museums, the theatre and film industry also seems to be pumping with life. Walls are littered with poster upon poster of the latest Korean musical, ballet, film or whatever stage production. And such variety! Seoul alone has 47 universities, a few of them directed at the arts, and I’m sure students creativity is limited only by their imagination.
On our first night, despite honorable intentions to get to bed early (having been awake since 5am that morning, and traveling around quite a bit), we ended up at a Live Jazz Bar after dinner. We saw a three-man-band called J-Story, who played the most irregular jazz I’ve ever seen. At times I was convinced that each of the musicians were just jamming to their own tunes (piano, double bass and drums), but then they’d come together in a perfect off-beat, grin at each other, and rock on.
Luckily, they stopped playing just after midnight, so we caught the subway home to Euljiro-4-ga, exit 4, right turn by the light blue sign, down the alley that smelt of decaying organic matter and into the unmarked side of Traveler’s A guesthouse, where late-night debates in Japanese would be the sound to which I’d fall asleep.
Unfortunately, there Just Wasn’t Enough Time to go see it. We also didn’t have time to visit any museums, and I was itching to stop at the Warhol exhibition, the museum of contemporary art, modern art, folk museums.. 
We did have time to stop at an intersection on the way to The Next Stop, where we played on the sculptures for a while before dragging our sleep-deprived bodies to whoknowswhere. And looked through many gallery windows for artworks that challenged every available media previously used to create something.
(My favourite one was a 2m tall picture of the Alice in Wonderland rabbit, using different shades of 2cm zip units as “pixels”)
We did have time to stop at an intersection on the way to The Next Stop, where we played on the sculptures for a while before dragging our sleep-deprived bodies to whoknowswhere. And looked through many gallery windows for artworks that challenged every available media previously used to create something.
(My favourite one was a 2m tall picture of the Alice in Wonderland rabbit, using different shades of 2cm zip units as “pixels”)
Aside from the bazillion sculptures and museums, the theatre and film industry also seems to be pumping with life. Walls are littered with poster upon poster of the latest Korean musical, ballet, film or whatever stage production. And such variety! Seoul alone has 47 universities, a few of them directed at the arts, and I’m sure students creativity is limited only by their imagination.
On our first night, despite honorable intentions to get to bed early (having been awake since 5am that morning, and traveling around quite a bit), we ended up at a Live Jazz Bar after dinner. We saw a three-man-band called J-Story, who played the most irregular jazz I’ve ever seen. At times I was convinced that each of the musicians were just jamming to their own tunes (piano, double bass and drums), but then they’d come together in a perfect off-beat, grin at each other, and rock on.
Luckily, they stopped playing just after midnight, so we caught the subway home to Euljiro-4-ga, exit 4, right turn by the light blue sign, down the alley that smelt of decaying organic matter and into the unmarked side of Traveler’s A guesthouse, where late-night debates in Japanese would be the sound to which I’d fall asleep. 
3 comments:
Sounds Amazing! Wish I wuz there. Ai, ek mis jou. onthou jy House On Fire in Swaizland? Of course doen jy man!
Cool! I just visited a crazy arty place too. A little bit easier to get to than Seoul. (Okayama eki to Uno eki, then a 10 minute ferry ride). Check it out!
Ek is nie n' moerse art fan nie, maar as obiter dictum kan ek nie weerstaan om te noem dat dit moerse weird so wees om klein, kort, Oosterse ballet dansers te sien. Ek kan myself net nie indink nie.
Miskien is dit net n' 'phase'?
Post a Comment