The lkl korea Trip 2010

Friday 30 April: Arrival

3. Moon Vases and Kim Gun Mo

As usual, my arrival through Incheon Airport is swift and stress-free. Morgan, my interpreter, is there to meet me, my rental phone is ready for pickup at the usual desk, plus this time I have the added luxury of a driver (though the hotel limo-bus I usually take is also stress-free). I am taken to my hotel, and see that there is just time to shower, change and get to an exhibition at Gallery Hyundai before dinner.

Gallery Hyundai had done an efficient publicity effort for this particular exhibition. It’s not often that I see coverage of contemporary art shows in the English language Korean press, but both the Korea Times and the Joongang Ilbo had been given the publicity material and had run articles with it. It was enough to catch my attention and make we want to go along.
While the main gate to the Gyeongbok Palace, the Gwanghwamun, is being repositioned and renovated, its site is covered by a giant mural created by Korean born, New York resident artist Kang Ik-joong, famous for his love of moon jars and his creation of big mosaic style works: each individual panel can be considered individually, but together they create a larger narrative.
The Gallery Hyundai exhibition is Kang’s first show in Seoul for 14 years. The centrepiece of the exhibition – the work which appeared in the Korean press – is an installation of 1,392 reduced-scale moon vases arranged in a circle of sand on the floor. The concept is similar to Lee Young-jae’s installation of 111 vessels exhibited in Brussels two years ago⁴. And to me the greater space and natural light available in the Beaux Arts museum enabled that installation to breathe more, creating a more pleasing overall effect. Possibly more interesting in the Gallery Hyundai exhibition were Kang Ik-joong’s larger images of moon jars painted in lacquer on wood, perhaps an homage to Kim Whanki. The woman on the front desk wasn’t at all interested in emailing me any press information about the show, so I shall say no more about it. But I caught it just before it packed up to head off to the Shanghai expo, where no doubt there are big bucks sloshing around which might be persuaded to invest in one of Korea's better known overseas artists.
I just have time to get round the exhibition before it's time to head off to dinner. On the way back to the hotel, I pop in at Seoul Selection bookshop, now rebranded Hank’s Book Café. I always try to go there when I’m in Seoul to check out their stock, though more serious Korea scholars will want to visit the Royal Asiatic Society bookshop as well. I’m pleased to see that they have seven copies of Jennifer Barclay’s book, Meeting Mister Kim. They were rather slow to stock it when it first came out, but they seem to be making up for it now. They don’t have the second edition of Tom Coyner’s book on Mastering Business in Korea yet, though they have plenty of the old edition.
By an amazing coincidence, that very morning Anna from Indieful ROK had arrived in Seoul from Sweden for a week, aiming to attend some exciting gigs, and I was cheeky enough to get her invited along to dinner. My KCIS hosts were graciously accommodating. Although I had known Anna by email for a few years and am a huge admirer of her work, I had never met her in person. I decided to ring her the previous day in Sweden because I thought it would be just too weird if the first time we actually spoke to each other was in Seoul.
Over dinner there was talk about Korean culture, how Anna and I first became interested in Korea, the Korean health system, and the appropriate transliteration of last year’s most happening drink. Makgeolli is the official spelling under the current standard Romanisation system, though most westerners would struggle pronouncing the word correctly when spelt that way. Secretly, some ministry staff recognise the difficulty, but they are stuck with the need to enforce the official system.
I am also told that my hotel, just around the corner from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in the Gwanghwamun area and where the august Royal Asiatic Society, Korea Branch, have their fortnightly meetings, is where Shin Jeong-a, the ex-Dongguk University art curator with the fake Yale degree, conducted her affair with a highly placed government official. I always like a bit of local colour.
I discover over dinner that Anna’s initial exploration of Korean music started around 14 years ago, exchanging cassettes (remember them?) with a Korean pen-friend. And by another strange coincidence, the first Korean album she came across that really caught her imagination was Kim Gun-mo's 3^rd. It was exactly the same album which first caught my own attention, though in my case it was a recommendation from my Korean hairdresser in a salon off London’s Oxford Street.
It was very pleasant evening of civilised conversation with our KCIS hosts, and there was a seemingly never-ending procession of Joseon dynasty palace food. Afterwards I’m ready to turn in for the night, but Anna is still full of energy and heads off to Hongdae where she catches the tail end of some gigs and has tea with one of her favourite musicians, Tearliner.
I can tell it’s going to be a great week.

Saturday 1 May: Tourism day

4. Yongin Folk Village

Today is a tourism day. We head out to Yongin, just outside the famous city of Suwon where the UNESCO-registered Hwaseong Fortress is situated.
Yongin contains a folk village which opened in late 1974, at the height of the Saemaeul movement when modernisation in the countryside was bringing to an end a certain style of traditional architecture. Traditional buildings, including some threatened with flooding as a result of dam construction, were dismantled, transported and reconstructed on this site. It has been speculated⁵ that Yongin is the first example of a specially created “folk village” anywhere in the world. This would suggest that Korea is a pioneer in preserving ancient culture – perhaps as a result of its traumatic history in the first half of the twentieth century.
It’s a place which is a popular attraction not only with tourists, but also with Koreans wanting to reconnect with some of their own culture. This is particularly true of Koreans returning home from abroad with children who have grown up in a foreign country.
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from the folk village: as a concept it sounded rather artificial. But it is well laid out, and with the dedicated help of our tour guide, Marina, we have an informative time.
Marina is a typically feisty Korean. She injured her leg in a hiking accident a couple of weeks beforehand and had to spend some time in hospital. But she has hobbled to work on a crutch in order to welcome foreigners to this attraction.
As I was to discover almost everywhere, I was on a very tight schedule. We had to get to the performance area by 11am. We pay a quick visit to the little shrine to the local deity, just outside the village gates; we pass the totem poles designed to ward off evil spirits; there’s a special gateway to reward one local women for her extraordinary piety. Another old lady is demonstrating silk-weaving to a couple of young girls. Elsewhere, a toddler is trying her hand at the ironing bats and the bean-grinder.
M
The five colours, directions, mythical beasts and elements

Black | North | turtle | water

Red | South | phoenix | fire

Blue | East | dragon | wood

White | West | tiger | metal

Yellow | Centre | dragon | earth

arina tells us why the gate into a rich person’s house has a raised roof (so that the palanquin can be carried in easily), about the rivalry between the kitchen spirit and the toilet spirit, about why a metal fish hangs in the eaves outside a scholar's room (the fish never closes his eyes, and is therefore an inspiration to keep studying), about the ondol system and ventilation, about the separation between the sexes, about the symbolism behind the five colours of the streamers which hang from the trees. She’s a mine of information, but this is the first full day of my trip and I haven’t got into the swing of taking notes yet. I absorb what I can and ignore the rest, enjoying the different patterns of the stonework in the walls, the pleasant garden of totem poles and kimchi pots under the shade of the trees, and the newly ploughed field in the middle of the village.
If you choose to visit the Yongin folk village, which I recommend despite not initially being too enthusiastic, I suggest you choose to hire a guide if one is available. Not vital, because you can still have a pleasant time without it, but a little talk about folk customs always fills out the experience.
The folk village has a regular schedule of daily performances. We had to say farewell to Marina all too quickly so that we could get to the colourful farmers nongak dance, with swirling ribbons and rousing rhythms. The loudspeakers which support the music are cunningly disguised as beehives. Next, the rope-walker (if you’ve seen King and the Clown, you’ll know the form). I was planning to ask Morgan, my interpreter, to grab the acrobat afterwards and ask him how he avoided doing mortal damage to his manhood during the act. But it was not necessary. Like most Korean performers, there was much bantering and backchat with the audience during the proceedings, and he communicated that he removes his testicles before the performance and reattaches them later.
Next, some lively trick horsemanship, followed by a re-enactment of a Joseon dynasty upper class wedding. Very colourful and picturesque, not just the robes of the happy couple, but also the sparkle on the sun-visors of all the ajummas wandering round enjoying the spectacle.
There’s plenty to see, eat and browse at the Yongin folk village, and you could probably spend the best part of a day there, but my schedule awaits, and we head off after lunch.
Further reading:

http://www.koreanfolk.co.kr/folk/english/index.htm