From non-hotel to the five star Marriott

An anecdote worth mentioning apropos our never-ending story about lodging during the Seoul-stay occurred upon arrival to the Leeum Samsung Museum opening of the show “Flash Cube” the other day. The man of the hour; the artist Thomas Demand (image of him below) who participated with huge pieces in the show, came up to me and greeted me with a smile on his face and said “Hello Power, rumour has it you moved out of your lodging – it wasn’t to your pleasing I’ve heard?” to which I replied with an astonished “Oh dear, how on earth did you hear about that?” even before I could congratulate him for the show – and he stated quite calmly with a smirk on his face that “Well, the whole town hasn’t been talking about anything else you know, it has been inevitable not to hear about it…”. I guess that the “jimjilbang-trauma” of our little group has now officially entered not only the World Wide Web by the help of our blog, but also into the international art world circuit of gossips.

Now the lives of Erlend, Bjørn and myself has turned upside down as we are now lodged at the Marriott, thanx to the wonderful help of Tae Eun Choi and her friend that works on the Marriott who managed to get us a super great rate at the hotel. I’m now referred to by the desk clerk of the reception as “Mrs Hammer” (not complaining about that - "Mrs Power Hammer"is quite a good name, althoug not as good as "Mrs Power Drill" perhaps, but one cannot have everything) and I am cushioned up with far too many cushions in the largest bed ever made (actually, one would be able to build a fort with the pillows, a thought that has a certain appeal to me… maybe I’ll initiate a pillow war tonight upon the hotel return with my fellow new room-mates Mr Hammer and Mr Hansen…). I’m now quite a happy camper, albeit slightly poorer. What a difference a bed makes.