Day out

Erlend finds possiblities to blog everywhere...

I'm not as witty like Jan but I'll continue with the photo blogging today - about what Erlend, Jooyoung and I did while Bjørn and Jan were at the gallery starting to paint walls and stuff.





















Ju Hyun Cho of the Seoul Museum of Art. She is preparing a show that will open late August that will include our Yeonhee-Dong project. We visited her and had a look at the space of the Museum where the project will be installed.















Here it is - quite vast, with walls that is removable.




















Erlend tries to explain something...





















"Hmm, yeah, very interesting indeed! But what do you mean exactly?"
















"That there are people making the show and there is a blog and then there are people seeing the show and the process of the show via the blog out there you know...!"















We went to see a great show curated by John Armleder at the Mongin art Center with Francis Baudevin, Stéephane Dafflon, Philippe Decrauzat, Fabrice Gygi, Stéphane kropf, Balthazar Lovay, Olivier Mosset, Mai-Thu Perret, Michael Scott, Blair Thurman and John Tremblay.






























And then, upstairs, a solo show with John Armleder himself...


























































And then we hit the galleries... some Spanish art...




















Wherever in the world that you travel, there is no way of escaping either Julian Opie or Liam Gillick. They are like the Starbuck's of the art world.






























We never really figured out what a museum for "chicken art" is, or whatever chicken art consists of but... there is obviously a museum for it here...

























































This is a painting by Gina Park and the motive is actually our own Jooyoung Lee!! Exhibited at One and J. Gallery.




















And here is the cute gallery director Patrick Lee
















Work in progress painting the outside of the gallery

김선정씨 Sunjung Kim

김선정씨가 연희동195에 토요일 4시에 오신다고 합니다.
모든 연희동 프로젝트 관련 작가들을 이 미팅에 환영합니다.
그래서 모두 함께 서로의 아이디어들을 나누고 발전시키는 시간이 되길 기대합니다.

The curator Sunjung Kim is coming by Yeonhee-Dong on Saturday June 30, 16.00. Anbody from the project is also welcome to meet her.

Photos from the last three days

This kid D-a-n-i-e-l is six years old writes and draws and speaks fluent English! We want him in our show. Eunhee is trying to flatter and convince him that we can help his future. Bjørn has prepared the contract so that we will have copyrights to anything creative and productive Daniel ever does. We all want clever Korean kids. I am convinced that in the future everything will be Korean.


Johnny Dollar is an Englishman in Seoul. A DJ, poet, web designer and artist, he will make something something something for us as well.


This photo is from Bjørn and Jan's night out on their own in Hongdae. Very few other photos exist, but it is rumoured to have been fun. It is unsure who was the most drunk.


This is actually one of the few photos from that night mentioned above.

Chasing kids!


Chasing another kid!


Fast one...



This one was slow...



The garage is a dead-end, my friend.

Jan's table in the morning.

Bjørn's table in the morning.

Hot-hot-hot. The weather is hot, that is. But nice guy too. Soooo cute!

Breakfast with Jan: Coke, cake and loaf. Korean loaf is soaked in butter and sugar, baked for a minute and served hot. Perfect with orange juice and Coca-Cola.

We all wonder how Power can make it through the day on her minimal ultra-vegetatrian diet when all she eats is a package of Pringles and drinking Cava. Here's the secret: A good proper breakfast of fibers and juice. The bills are not to eat, though they hold a lot of fibers too.

Erlend is shown here fresh and shaven in a Comme de Garcon stripy shirt and Luis Vuitton t-shirt. Simple classic breakfast of roll and coffee with orange juice.


Our paints and tools.


Hot spicy Korean recipe REVEALED!! Quite simple: Boil vegetables, add chicken, some water, chilli (just for the colour) and then a sock. Hot burning great dish.


Bjørn gets stripy.

Studio at night.


Jan, Kyungah and Erlend talking art-art-art at The Loft.


Breakfast with Bjørn is pure and refined: Dark bread with nothing to it. Not even butter for this boy no. But he will have some really strong dark coffee with cream. Yes please.


Something went awfully wrong at the architect's office - his assistant forgot to save the last version of the Auto-CAD file before sending the digital drawings off to the house shop. At least allign all 3D-sketches to the ground plane when you make a house, please. Make it easy, thanks.


This is the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Itaewon. We had a very nice meeting with the Embassador Mr Didrik Tønseth and first secretary Martin Hauge Torbergsen.


The prominent house of Paik Hae Young Gallery where Power and Erlend had rooms to stay for three nights.

Tae Eun Choi was Jan's assistant in 2004 for his show at Artsonje, where she painted a 30 meter long wall with him. She works as an interior designer and will participate in our show. She is also arranging dead cheap deals at the top five star Marriott Hotel in Seoul for us by the end of our stay. Big V and thumbs up.



Me photographing Bjørn photographing me...

E-mail conversation between Power and Soo Jung

Dear Soo Jung,

Ah, yes, we were talking about the project maybe too briefly at the talk and I completely comprehend if the outline of the project is a bit blurred, in fact - I'm not altogether certain about every part of the project as it is very much a "work in process" and also "in progress" too. It is an evolving project that seems to mutate as every day unfolds with new ideas and new artists. Yesterday, in fact, Jan Christensen was indeed using your own work process as a structure of reference for the whole show which makes it maybe more understandable for you. You see - the way you use random artifacts and situations from your own environment and then later place them together in one of your paintings is very much like this process for the show/work-shop evolves.

The work-process is ongoing and there is an inherent wish for artists participating in it from all over and there is also an inherent wish to maybe break down the structure of the ordinary exhibition where you have works, curators and straight and square definitions of the roles and hierarchies. It is an experiment.

If you have a look at Jan Christensen's (the artist who invited the Norwegian artists/curators) web page at www.janchristensen.org you will find his work for reference too, which I feel is important as a reference too for the process. He, much like you, appropriate stuff from his everyday-life and use it for his projects and wall paintings. In a way this process could be used as a way of "curating" too - although "curating" is maybe a word to be used with precaution in this project. There is a wish that the artists will collaborate and also INTERFERE with each other, and the show is not going to be a show with different singled out masterpieces displayed separately and in "piece" - on the contrary there is a wish for a situation more like "chaos" here where artists and work are intertwined with each other.

What we are talking about now is maybe if we could use one excerpt of your paintings, like the circus tent, the floating cone or the birthday cake for instance - to separate one of the represented things/situations/objects and perhaps make a new painting of it - but enlarged or a little bit distorted, perhaps on the floor or on the wall. We were also yesterday discussing if you in fact also would consider to additionally contribute with one of the paintings you have at INSA too, since the show there ends on July 1st and we have the first "pre-opening" of the project on July 3rd. If so you would have a piece in the group show too, in addition to the "excerpt" that will be somewhere else in the space, made by someone else.

The best thing would of course be if you came by the project space when we are working and we could talk together about it and explain more thoroughly, I am sorry if I took for granted that you would somehow understand the process even though I myself sometimes have much trouble understanding it :).

Would it be possible for you to come by some time soon so that we could meet and maybe explain more at length? But do bear in mind that this is an evolving process that has many twists and turns, but in general it should be very simple and also very easy to change the process. Makes more sense now?

You can also check out the blog that we have created for the process - here you will find the flyer for the project too: 195seoul.blogspot.com. In conjunction with this I was wondering if I would have your permission to post this e-mail in the blog? Hopefully this would be alright with you, it might help others to comprehend this process too, you know...?

All my best
power




soojung wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> I carefully read your email and I am corious about several things.
>
> My questions are as follows.
>
>
>
> Firstly, in actual fact, I didn't fully understand what kind of your project is.
>
> ( I think, we don't have enough time for talking about your project in Yeonhee-dong) Could you explain more about it?
>
> Secondly, who will use the images, which images will he or she use and what is the context?
>
> Lastly, Do I participate in the project as a member in a group work or Is my name just mentioned as a reference?
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Choi, Soo Jung
>
>
> ---------[ 받은 메일 내용 ]----------
> 제목 : Re: [RE]Images
> 날짜 : Tue, 26 Jun 2007 09:52:25 +0200
> 보낸이 : Power Ekroth
> 받는이 : soojung
>
> Thanx a lot!
>
> Actually I/we have one question for you, and that is if you would find
> it ok if we use some of your elements and maybe blow them up and paint
> them on a wall in the gallery for the project? You would be credited as
> being a part of the show of course. Let us know!
> All best,
> power
>

Progress in networking for the work in progress

Portfolio browsing

Erlend (with the biggest smile he has ever had on a photograph) and myself at INSA art space going through portfolios at this very instant. We had a great introduction and we are looking on some really great young and emerging artists! This is FUN!

And HELLO INSTITUTIONS: IF YOU NEED A SHOW WITH LIKE "YOUNG KOREAN ARTISTS" - ERLEND AND I WILL COME CURATE IT FOR YOU!! JUST GIVE US A CALL/E-MAIL/COMMENT HERE!

Flyer ready!

Design by Bjørn-Kowalski Hansen

"Weed is probably the last thing this project need right now"

Day six or whatever

[Written last night]

I am writing this from a bed. And not just any bed: a bed designed by Donald Judd! Okay, not true. But there is a desk by Judd in a room almost directly below me. I am at the previously mentioned new diggs awarded to Power and myself for being classy curators and not dirty artist scum like Jan and Bjørn. Our locale is the Paik Hae Young Gallery in one of the posh areas above Seoul’s tourist-trap Itaewon. It’s a lovely architect-designed building from the 60s, a typical modernist white concrete house in the style of a Mediterrenean villa. I’m in a bed. I guess I must’ve spent more than six nights in a row without sleeping in a bed before, but these last six nights and days feel like a very long time. Not in a bad way, simply in a jam-packed holy shit what the hell is going on here-way. It’s good. Also feeling like a bit of a klasseforræder for being here when Jan and Bjørn are still jimjilbanging.

Today was one of the strangest days so far. First we had the meeting with Ms. Paik, then Jooyoung, Jan, Power and I went to see the new Samsung museum, which was closed, because it was Monday (Hey! How should we know, right? It’s not like any of us are particularly hip to this whole “artworld” business…with its weird rules and regulations). So then we ended up at Ali Baba, an Egyptian restaurant where we had nice falafels, and just okay hummus, and something which was certainly not the tabouleh we ordered but which was still perfectly okay.

Afterwards the others went on various errands. Jan to buy paint and Jooyoung and Power back to the gallery. I decided that it was about time I get down to what I normally spend most of my time doing when I’m in a city that I don’t know, so I took the subway randomly and walked the streets. That is perhaps not entirely true either. I took the subway to Apgujeon, which is the final stop before the fashion district, with several big department stores and many designer shops along a busy street that goes for maybe a couple of kilometres. No trip yet to Hermés, but I might go there tomorrow as I will be slightly better dressed because we’re starting the day with a meet and greet at the Norwegian embassy to thank them for very generously supporting us with money for the airfare for Bjørn, Jan and myself. (Hey, Nikko: thanks for the comment. Great to hear that the Leif Inge-thing should be happening, it’s going to be great!) Anyway, initial impressions, everything a little boring. Mostly just the Europeans labels you would expect. Raf Simons, Costume National, Viktor & Rolf etc. And the big ones of course. One store had a small, but also disappointing Marc Jacobs section. Of the big houses, Prada, Gucci and Louis Vuitton had the most impressive buildings. Prada in a league of its own with a super-sleek, big modernist building that seemed perfect for them. Also been wondering a bit about the fate of Louis Vuitton on account of all the knockoff bags I keep seeing. For some reason they seem to be the main target of fakes, I seem to remember this from Oslo as well, and I would guess that the people who can actually afford the real ones would soon be put off by seeing all these lowlife nobodies everywhere sporting their at one time probably beloved LV. And as a result I would imagine that no one can be interested in buying real ones anymore. I mean, these are people who know how to appreciate a good distinction, so they shouldn’t put up with this crap. Any info here would be great.

I feel like my new, if temporary, living arrangements might result in actually having some kind of surplus of mindpower to actually start writing some serious reflections on just what the hell we’re doing over here. For one thing, I’ve been looking through Per Gunnar Tverbakk’s PROJECT DESCRIPTION for his Ph.D. project at the Art Academy in Oslo and there are definitely certain similarities between his ideas and what we’re doing here. Maybe. But to be honest, reading about his project kind of makes me want to be involved in the production of tangible, sellable product-art. So far my only, not so serious reflectiony, response has been to commission t-shirts for all of us saying “I Went To Korea and All I Did was This Processbased Art Project.”

Princess diva's sleep and unease

Princess divapower finally got a good night's sleep in a queen size bed in a room of her own. Not that she minded staying at Jooyoung's, not at all - she actually really miss the nightly talks - but she really enjoys to sleep in a real bed with a mattress. Now that she has slept well and feel really good, she also experience another feeling: mega guilt.

I'm beginning to see the "strategies" of Jan over here even more clearly. Yesterday I was joking with him that he should have started the "breaking down of my diva princess attitude" and sense of individuality more lightly instead of pushing me into the completely, totally, democratic bath-house-sleep-arrangement from day one; I meant that if he had arranged a slow downfall in arrangements from the early beginning with a "five class hotel day one, a four star hotel day two, three star day three" etc towards the Jimjilbang which of course is not a hotel at all I would have had a smoother transition and maybe had more time to adjust which would have made things easier to handle. He, on the other side, laughingly replied that he thought it was so much better to change from the Jinjilbang to a five class arrangement so that I really would appreciate the luxury so much more.

The result?

I'm most likely turning into a full blown Marxist-communist.

Erlend is in the same boat as myself since he is in the other room in this resort. He's talking about time-share of his room unlike me. I'm far more egoistical and would like to keep the bed the few nights I have it for my disposal (so I'm not yet full blown communist) but I am however more than willing to share the huge bed with Jan or Bjørn, or hell, even both if they would wish (for the record, I am now talking about sharing the bed, not anything else). I'm afraid that the guys are too tactful and won't take up on the offer though, so here I am, in a beautiful house and a wonderful big bed, alone in a room, wirelessly connected and with a magnificent view plus a huge balcony facing the view - this is something I would have loved normally and would have enjoyed totally and felt like it was completely something I "deserved" (think L'oreal) but - now, all I can feel is guilt.














But like I told you, I am not yet able to deal with the consequences of being a convinced commy all the way and therefore not yet ready to move back into the pink uniform shorts-jinjilbang, but I cannot but to be amazed about the smartness of Jan's strategy. He is in a way building a "powerless structure" (no pun intended with myself, pun intended about Elmdrags') in this project. Who has the power in the project? Not the artists participating. Not the curators. There is no gallery owner wanting to sell works, no inherent structure in the space in itself, no curator's strategy or concept, no money involved... I'm always advocating that there are no powerless structures and trying to invent such a situation has a power hierarchy inherent in itself (why I am digesting Lefebvre at the moment) etc, but by placing me and Erlend in this beautiful home while staying himself together with the other artist in this project in the white uniform-shorts at the jinjilbang Jan has made somewhat a decision about the two of us being in another position to be able to go into this residency, why we are not in a "higher rank" or anything of course, but it is a clear decision and choice of distribution of means and funds. I guess the booming economy of Seoul's with its history and closeness to North Korea is a great spot to be considering these things. Especially since I have the Swedish passport representing the land of "lagom" or "witheld sufficiency" which could translate to flat (in both aspects) social democratic boringness.

I am partly exaggerating and am deliberately pushing things to its limit here of course, bear that in mind while reading my qualms. But still. I'm chewing on this, but not yet ready to swallow. I'm not easy about things, not at all, not even when I'm rewarded a bed of my own. A bitchy princess on peas.















The project space's wall behind Bjørn's desk















Excerpt from the wall with Jan's preliminary poster for the project to the right, and another poster about the so called "middle way" of Sweden to the left

I want your Aura
I want your Aura
I want your Aura
I want your Aura
I want your Aura