Mama Houswife

The nightly talk before bed yesterday between Jooyoung and me was about the hardships of being a curator or organizer. Jooyoung is an artist and is not particularly fond of the downsides of taking on the role of the curator when artists, whom happen to be your friends too, make a mess or don't make anything at all or expect too much from the organizer and making sure no artist feel neglected or left out. I told her that I some years ago read a text written by a female curator who shared her experiences.

Basically she wrote about the fact that a curator takes on many different roles, and leaving the obvious things aside like being able to build walls, arrange transports, insurance etc, she was instead touching the topic about the personal relationships that quite naturally happen between curator and artist. The (female) curator turns into the grand-mother, mother, sister, best friend, partner, psychiatrist and mistress (and sometimes when the curator is co-producer and maybe even initiator of certain work, she turns into the delivery nurse or in some cases even mother of their "child" i.e. the art piece). This is inherent in the very nature of the relationship in a weird way. It is also very stressful.

I know the different roles by now pretty good why I am extremely content to in this project take (and actually really being able to) the back-seat, watch, learn, observe and at times try to calculate where my help is needed and make short interactions. Yesterday night in the project space there was a lot of activity as you can tell from the huge amount of documentation images from last night posted here on the blog. I couldn't work as in writing texts about artists or art. Neither could Erlend who was the first to take responsibility and leave the place. I stayed on and turned into the DJ of the night.

What is evident, and what was the main topic of mine and Jooyoung's conversation was that this time around and in this project - even though there are no "obvious" mama-curator around here (although we all are in a way) things are moving on quite smooth considering all the obstacles we have to endure (living on top of each other, no-sleeping, very simple arrangements in the gallery, no tool-box, hot humidity, monsoon rains, strong personalities around, no-budget, communication troubles yada yada yada) every one takes his' or her's responsibility and works with a smile on their face. It is evident that the reason for this is a hell of a great group dynamic. I've been through some "flat structures" before in my life that turned into the worst hell you would ever imagine (Villa Medusa is another TV-series I'd like to bring into the pot of TV-series references on this blog). We all like each other and respect the work of the other's why we (still) are having a great time together! This is most likely a new record too!

Today I'm taking some me-time at Jooyoung's, washing Jan's, mine and Jooyoung's clothes, doing dishes and writing this blogpost as well as doing some other stuff that needs to be done like ironing. I'm the house wife of today. But I will also of course get ready for this night's pre-opening and karaoke too! Can't wait!

images

random images from today

talking about stencil?
my web work from a daytime view
painting_painting_painting!
limmy's chandelier in process
we can't imagine what it will be yet
working jaejun
working jinjoo
orange! stairs_stairs..you can check it today!
wow, it's getting more interesing!

Karaoke after pre-opening!!

Image above - Erlend, Power and Jooyoung outside the poshest karaoke-bar in Seoul!

홍대 수노래방입니다. 내일 프리오프닝 밤늦게 갑시다!!

Tomorrow after pre-opening: karaoke!!

And some more...

Work in progress

Hermès visit

Today we made one of Erlend's wettest dream come true. We didn't only go to the Hermès boutique, or I should rather say Hermès palace, in Seoul, but we also had an appointment with the artistic curator, Kim Sung Won at their space by Dosan Park.

Getting there was however a bit troublesome - we all met in the Apgujeong subway station (Jan, Lina, Erlend, Bjørn and myself), had a quick coffee and then we took two taxi's towards the space. Neither of the taxi drivers knew how to get to the space and the language barrier made things more difficult. Theese problems are actually nothing that has been covered in this blog so far but should have been much earlier: the "lost in translation"- as well as "no translation at all while communicating"- problem. In most places English is really "the new Latin" like Bjørn likes to say, but this does not naturally comply in Seoul. Jooyoung has had a lot of work during our stay with helping us communicate to taxi drivers, shop owners etc - we use the speed dial to her many times a day to be able to get something done. In any case - we made it to the space after some minor obstacles.

Upon arrival we gathered that our hostess was running late due to another meeting with two of the three finalists of the 2007 Hermès Korea Missulsang prize that will all exhibit in the space in August. Jan, Bjørn, Erlend and me was placed in their sleek meeting room and waited while sipping our chic tea. Jan quite naturally seated himself in the chairman seat and it fitted him perfectly. We had a nice time and chatted about this and that while waiting. We had a short encounter with the director finally as well as the two finalists in the restaurant in the basement. After this Erlend went on a shopping spree and the rest of us went to "our" gallery for yet another meeting with an artist - the first artist that decided not to join in of all the meetings we have had so far.

Library again...

Power and myself .Eunhee is happy arranging catalogues.
Eunhee and myself went back to the Seoul City Museum of Arts' Library to collect the Seoul catalogues.

They are all 25 catalogues, the title contains "Seoul" from the library. they will be part of our temporary collection during the show.

More documenting

Bjørn is spinning at Bar Nana Friday 6th July !

cats and dogs

pouring!
well, I wanna post daily but you know....-_-;;
I put my beads_beads_beads under the stairs tonight.
it looks not too bad...ill try to find another space tomorrow..anyway, im afraid that DJ booth isn't ready yet BUT we can do it tomorrow..oh today :p~

guess what, jun is in hospital now she's got a sore throat(kinda inflammation)cuz of fatigue i reckon. she might not attend to our introduction. let's pray for a quick recovery!

okay, sweet dreams!

Groundhog Day the sequal

Finally finishing up a text I've been "constipating" with on Münster I realize I experience the same thing every day just like mentioned in an earlier post here on the blog... I've been locked up in the gallery either "writing" or actually writing text all day and then eventually starting to drink beer when I get too hungry in the evening. Coz we are not having dinner until it is almost too late or even too late in the eve for it usually - like when all the restaurants have quit to either deliver or make food (about ten in the evening). After some beers we all feel like doing something more "constructive" than having dinner - like going to a night club, bar or something of the like, to "meet the locals". Every day the same. I've many more texts to write and we are supposed to have the "pre opening" already on Tuesday, and tomorrow we are off to some meetings instead of having a slow time by the computers. Something has to change pretty soon, or I'll go mad. But I guess this is the Groundhog Day of my life rather than something particular to this place, space or time. Bitter is the taste of... life.

Itaewon nights

As you can see from our most recent blog posts, something is different. McDonalds? This is no way for us artfolks to live our lives. But since Bjørn and I moved into our hotel in Itaewon yesterday, we have all of a sudden experienced how a place can produce a new kind of mental topography. For a few short moments, which were really good fun, we were sucked into the Itaewon lifestyle. Then we woke up to a bad conscience for being bad foreigners. But as Bjørn commented: "If the only thing I have to have hangover anxiety about is eating three (3) burgers at McDonalds, maybe I don't have it so bad."

So what is this all about, then? What's so bad about Itaewon? Mainly just that it is a kind of "American ghetto" of Seoul, with a big army presence and, for some reason, also a big pull on the American tourist market. Perhaps most of the American tourists here are visiting family and friends in the army. All along the main street there are little shops that cater to tourists and Westerners, and the side streets are filled with restaurants and bars. Coming there yesterday was actually kind of a culture shock after spending the first half of the stay in the more exclusively Korean neighbourhoods of Jeeonheedong and Hongdae, staying in jimjilbangs etc. Then again maybe saying that this is a "culture shock", or also sort of feeling that it is, is just coquetteish crap that comes from a strong desire to perceive ourselves as different from these people (= rest of Itaewon crowd). As serious "travellers" as opposed to "tourists" or some such backpacker neo-hippie shit. But it is kind of interesting since we've spent most of our time so far attempting this flat structure where everyone is the same and where no one is in charge. And the we post long attempts at half-assed theory on the internet, so that people back home can think we're cool because we're, like, in Korea and meeting cool people (which of course we are) and what not. Then again, isn't this exactly the kind of self-effacing pseudo-selfcritical crap which mainly functions as a new way of blowing one's own horn. Sigh. I don't know. Basically, I don't think there's any way of writing about these questions without sounding like an idiot.

Anyway, yesterday then. I met up with Bjørn at our friend Jonny Dollars' apartment, where he was in the middle of recording a mammoth radio show for www.cheekymonkeyradio.com. From here we went on to meet up with Power, Jooyoung, Tae Eun and a friend of Jooyoung whose name I didn't catch (not a first here, I'm ashamed to admit...). After fish and chips, cosmos, beers and greyhounds at a bistro-like place we decided it was time to go to a gay bar which, as it turned out, was more like a gay night club. You can always trust teh gays to know a good time, and the club was fantastic! Absolutely packed, everyone dancing to great homo-friendly diva house etc. Neither Bjørn nor I got any attention from the locals, so I guess we're not what they're looking for.

After the club we went looking for a quiet bar in which to enjoy one final drink. First we accidentally walked into a brothel and were courteously thrown out with the words "We are not normal bar, men come here." Okay then. Anyway. Reading about Itaewon on wikipedia I found an interesting article on prostitution to Americans in Korea here: here

Official Tee?

Random Images

Cratedigging & Radioshow

Johnny Dollars is one of several foreigners who has found a new way of life in Seoul as Englishteachers. Up on till now, just about every foreigner I have met during our stay here has been , or is currently catering Koreans with the new Latin. Apparently it is short hours and good pay, which in Johnny`s case, gives him more time to work on other projects like producing and DJing. This saturday, Mr. Dollars invited me to go record hunting with him in the Myeongdong area, which besides being a place for high-end shopping centers and teens in love, offers the biggest concentration of second hand vinyl in the country. Johnny brought his friend Stuart from New Zealand, ( or DiscoStu amongst friends ) digging as well. After hitting a couple of record shelves ( the shops are actually small booths in underground shopping centers ), I realize quickly to my big disappointment that 45s or singles, are non-existent in Korea. I found a couple of boxes, but they only contained records badly stacked on top of eachother with no sleeve, and they were all from someone`s rubbish country and western collection. I was kind of hoping to find something worth picking up on 45s, knowing that the American Army base in Seoul has been around long enough to have seen some records finding their way across the ocean. I then started to look for some Korean 70s stuff, as I heard some good records at Bar SUM in Hong-Dae earlier in the week. After a couple hours, we felt that we had seen through enough, and went to grab a couple of beers, and Johnny was also meeting up with a writer from Blues & Soul magazine, ( Carey from Wales, and her friend Yoyo from Texas )that was going to try to promote his new party and a new website of his( sorry, I can`t remember the name of it, but I`ll try to post it later ).
We then headed to Itaewon where I was going to record a show, for his internetradioshow at cheekymonkeyradio. Some new findings, but mostly records from last weeks gig at Bar Nana. Actually, the new findings in fact never made it to Johnny`s studio, as I lost and retrieved those records TWICE in numerous bars, and they are waiting for me behind the counter at a bar in Freedom Town. Londoner Jordan, friend of Johnnys who is interesting enough also an englishteacher, stopped by the studio with a nice bag of 45s, and made it a great evening, sharing lots of new sounds I haven`t heard before. I will post a link to the radioshow when it`s online.