Invited by Jan Christensen who in turn was invited by Jooyoung Lee to do a work-shop project in Seoul is intriguing of course. Three weeks in Seoul with a project to make together with Erlend Hammer and Bjørn Kowalski Hansen whom I don't know well at all, will certainly prove to be interesting and most likely also a tad challenging. I know for certain that I already had a bit of a challenge during the first 24 hours here in Seoul.
I really belive that Jan's idea was to kind of grind our personalities down so much that he later can start to mold new personalities that suit better into the project and will make us more easy to work with - something like the Stepford wifes if you get my drift? Anyway, the first step in Stepfordizing us was the long flight over to Seoul. Erlend and I had some sleep thanx to a couple of Melatonin-pills that we popped, but it was no good sleep of course. Jan and Bjørn were playing PlayStation the whole flight through, so they were a bit tender upon arrival in Seoul. Serious heat in combination with a never ceasing rain (it is the early Monsoon-season here) kept us at our toes the whole days. Jan, who already at the airport of Frankfurt announced that there were under no conditions going to be any talk about sleep before at least ten o'clock in the evening so that we would somehow escape the jet-lag was the first one to regret the words. He actually fell asleep during lunch/dinner over the welcoming shoulder of Bjørn's. He woke up 10 minutes later kind of refreshed.
Jan and Bjørn
Jooyoung who had met us and taken us to the gallery with a welcoming and warm hostess-attitude, helped us all the way through all our first newbie-mistakes and questions. After leaving our stuff at the gallery which will turn into a work-station soon, or has already in a sort of way with us immediately getting our lap tops on the tables to check our e-mails. So, anyway, she took us to something I've dreaded a long time: the Jimjibang. Now, Jan has always been very enthusiastic about this sleeping arrangement that is cheap (like 10 Euros a night) at a relaxing and bathing institute that is open 24 hours. Basically you do aerobics, shower, bathe, get massages or prpare a new hair-do and then you can go relax and rest on mattresses in relaxing-rooms. Here one can sleep. If one can sleep in a room with loads of other people that is. Now I am not a fan of saunas, bath houses etc at all in general. Sure, I too go swimming in bath houses on occasions every other year or so, but I find the hygiene-issue in large bath a bit... disturbing. But, hey, I am a good sport and was really willing to give something Jan was so enthusiastic about a try at least one night.
But listen to this - one is given some clothes to wear after the bath in the relaxing rooms. Everyone wears them. It is a plain t-shirt and shorts. I hate shorts. I hate t-shirts. Yeah, I really really do hate to wear that sort of clothes and I haven't worn anything like it for centuries. I can't remember when I last had a regular t-shirt on. It must have been when I was 7 or so. Back in those days I only wore pink clothes - I was very particular on that issue. Nowadays I only wear black. I am very particular about that too now. I was born stubborn and particular about my ideas. Now, my worst nightmare actually came true that night - not only did I have to wear shorts and t-shirt, but *horror horror shiver shiver* the clothes came in pink.
So, imagine my state: dead-tired, no posture in my body left at all, feeling like a nearly drowned rat (from walking long in the rain) and having to wear those extremely unsexy, baggy pink pig clothes and without make-up... I thought I was fortunate to be dead-tired, I thought that this would ensure a good nights sleep even though I had to share a room with many others. I was wrong. My integrity was grinded down even more. The mattresses provided is not anything like the mattresses I'm used to, the Ikea-sort of thing. These mattresses in Korea are more like... hard flat plastic ones. I took two of them and felt like the princess lying on a pea, tossing and turning and breaking my back. And of course - no pillow. Sleep was naturally interrupted by all these people coming in and chattering all night and maybe we were like 30 people "sleeping" at once in a small, hot and humid room. When I finally fell asleep I was awakened promptly by the aerobics class starting with the song "FUN FUN FUN" pumping at the loudest volume. I didn't think it was so fun...
If Jan wasn't such a wonderful lovely man whom I treasure like gold I would have been pissed off like hell, sulking away and most likely considered going back home. Now all I could do was ignore my bad back, my non-sleep and just go along with the flow. Jooyoung generously offered me to stay with her instead so now I'm on her floor instead. Next day came with nice weather and first stop was breakfast before the talk at Insa Art Space that Erlend, I and Jan were asked to do with the Korean artist Choi Soo-jung. The Insa Art Space have an archive with artist's portfolios that Erlend and I will dig deeper into on Wednesday. The talk went on for something like 1½ hours and it was a very relaxed talk.
The gang of five, Erlend, Jan, myself, Bjørn and Jooyoung, went to grab a bite at a Chinese restaurant before hooking up with a British ex pat DJ who took us to Bar Nana where Bjørn already had a DJ session gig, playing sweet soul music and us supporting him. Jan was supporting the DJ with beers all along the gig, I was supporting Jan with "powershots" - presumably alcohol free boosterizers and other liquids with more alcohol, and we were all kind of drinking a lot and dancing along. It was a great gig and when Bjørn quit to play the dance floor was immediately emptied. The gang of five continued to party at The Loft. The owner of the place joined us as well as two artists. I got some really nice crotchshots of Bjørn (and Erlend too) here.When we left the last club the sun was up and the time was like 6 o'clock already. We had messed up our attempt to get rid of jet lag and be on Korean time schedule already But we had made new friends (particularly one insisting girl who for some reason had an idea about getting both Jan and myself in her bed for the night) and had a great time. Needless to say, we slept in the next morning.
Erlend and Jooyoung
