Seoul Village Season XX

Welcome to 2026, the year of the Red Horse! I know, technically, we have to wait for the lunar new year and some may prefer the Fire Horse moniker but anyway, here's an AI generated beast for all of you:

Change, bold choices, that's what's supposedly in store for the new year.

Korea experienced its share of changes in 2025, but they were expected:

• YOON Suk-yeol's impeachment was confirmed
• LEE Jae-myung managed to elude justice and get elected
• Korea has de facto become a single-party nation, and not the party the disgraced president wanted 

A single party nation?

YOON's party - which never really was his - is in shambles. And that's not the first time: the PPP failed to truly reform itself (beyond rebranding) after PARK Geun-hye's impeachment, and it doesn't seem willing to evolve following YOON's either. In fact, this election losing machine succeeded only in 2022, when the DPK led the national shoot-yourself-in-the-foot contest with a LEE Jae-myung ensnared in scandals and a then highly unpopular president MOON Jae-in creating a most unlikely candidate (YOON) that had no choice but to join the other side... Today, this party doesn't seem to have any future.

Meanwhile, to secure his own future, LEE Jae-myung managed to seize both the stick (full control of justice) and the carrot (direct control of finance). In the most Trumpian fashion, he's now enjoying the retribution time of his life, siccing justice even at OH Se-hoon, who had no involvement whatsoever in YOON's martial law disaster, but remains his number one target for the 2026 local elections. DP candidate CHONG Won-o is already catching up with the Seoul mayor.

On the diplomatic front, LEE has been very active and well beyond the long planned APEC 2025 summit in Gwangju. As expected, he reconnected with North Korea and China. He's visiting XI Jinping very soon, but KIM Jong-un is not as responsive as planned - probably vaxxed by earlier disillusions from the TRUMP I era, and most certainly not thrilled by the new POTROK's surprising request for a nuclear submarine from Uncle Sam (on the other hand, that OPCON transfer...). Also surprising: LEE cozying up with Japan. XI might ask him to chose sides wisely.

On the domestic front, a few good news: the demographic uptick started 16 months ago has not been disturbed by the domestic turmoil, the presidency returned to Cheong Wa Dae, and exports rebounded (Korean cosmetics rule, semiconductors had a good year...). But the Korean Won nosedived, protectionism returned, the household and national debts kept creeping up, costly gifts to stimulate consumption further damaged the balance, and Korea can't afford a Japan-style headlong flight.

But at least, Korea beat another Netflix record with Kedeheon / 케데헌*.

As much as I enjoyed K-Pop Demon Hunters' catchy OST and many references to the Korean culture, it felt visually closer to a manga or anime than to a manhwa. Even that big cat seemed to come straight from Studio Ghibli. But K-pop itself stole from all over the map, so let's not bicker and enjoy while it lasts.

 

Because the billions Netflix poured in Korea following Squid Game are coming to an end, and the platform is diversifying its sources across the region - expect a lot of BL from Thailand.

So yes, BTS will drop a new album in March, but other pillars of the creative industry are struggling (see "A Fade Out - Not 'The End'"), and the world will also want new stuff. If it wants to remain a cultural leader**, Korea will need to once more reinvent itself, to move out of its creative comfort zone. 

Seoul Village 2026
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* over 325M views for the first 91 days vs over 265M for Squid Game in 2021 (+22%, but the number of Netflix subs grew by 36% in the meantime).

** see "Can Korea sustain its cultural leadership?"

AHN Cheol-soo joins YOON Suk-yeol

Last night, following the last presidential debate, AHN Cheol-soo decided to stop his campaign and give his full support to YOON Suk-yeol. Expected almost from the start*, this move was postponed until the last possible moment to mark AHN's ballot papers, even if voting has already started overseas.

"Ahn Cheol-soo and Yoon Seok-youl in joint presser to announce campaign merger" (20220303 - twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/1499159949062017025 @theSeoulVillage)

AhnLab founder lifts YOON's candidacy on such key issues as innovation, economy, education, or health. Mostly, he brings guarantees about his capacity to unite around the center, and to mobilize younger generations.

A reluctant candidate and a mediocre campaigner, YOON hesitated a long time before joining the PPP, an irrelevant opposition party where he had to compose with obsolete paleo-conservatives on one extreme and aggressive young anti-feminists on the other: PARK Geun-hye supporters never forgave him his role in her imprisonment, and LEE Jun-seok excels at dragging his candidacy down. Today, YOON was obviously relieved to see AHN unlock the shackles and help him focus on what matters most to him: healing Korean democracy, starting with justice.

The first mission of the united ticket is to prevent LEE Jae-myung from reaching power. Protected by the government, the controversial populist was able to cruise during the campaign without fear of being investigated in the Daejang-dong scandal. And if the family of the women murdered by his nephew (whom he defended during the trial) sued him for dismissing the double murder as 'dating violence', this most Trumpian character played the clock by delaying his answers to the judge beyond the legal limits, pushing the next steps until after the elections. 

Imagine what this man could do if he reached presidency and enjoyed the total impunity created by the ruling party's most outrageous reform: the de facto end of oversight of the executive power and the creation of the highly controversial Corruption Investigation Office, which was instantly weaponized to harass YOON and to protect Cheong Wa Dae from embarrassing scandals.

On that one, MOON clearly insulted ROH Moo-hyun's memory: the late president, a man who genuinely cared for democracy and justice, would have been appalled by a move that also betrayed the spirit of 2016, when the population overwhelmingly called for a defense of both, and the respect of separation of powers.

Beyond LEE and Trump, I often make a parallel between Korea's ruling party and the US Republican party. Both have lost their way on what used to make them most respectable. Both need to lose in 2022 if they don't want to lose their souls. And both need to humbly return to the drawing board (preferably not to push for more gerrymandering or deceitful schemes).

It may sound indecent to talk about existential threat when thousands die in Ukraine under Russian aggression, but this time, Korea must get it right, and heal from its core. And its center.

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* and not even one year after AHN's merger with OH Se-hoon ("After OH Se-hoon's Hangang Renaissance, Who In 2022?")

Moon Landing - The Cheong Wa Dae Curse

Is MOON Jae-in losing it? Is the Cheong Wa Dae curse eventually catching up with him? How much is this weird leadership crisis affecting Korea's future? And to start with, am I sounding a bit too dramatic?

Last year (see "Checks and balances"), I singled out "three disturbingly noxious axes" around which MOON's very character was being questioned:

• is he being too much played by KIM Jong-un? 
• is he letting ideology too much undermine the economy? 
• is he taking too much liberty with separation of powers?

Since then, the least one could say is that MJI did nothing to clear mounting fears around these axes. Worse, the way he's coping with CHO Kuk scandals is now threatening his whole presidency to its very core.

MOON's controversial decision to stop sharing intelligence with Japan as a retaliation to Shinzo Abe's trade war on Korea perfectly illustrates the malaise around all three axes:

• North Korea? Clearly the biggest winner of this decision (not to mention China or Russia, also pleased to see the ROK-US-Japan tripartite alliance weakened in a most sensible part). South Korea has the most to lose as KIM Jong-un's most exposed neighbor, and MOON appears once more as someone eager to seize any alibi to undermine his own country's security in favor of the North.
• The economy? By retaliating on political and military dimensions, MOON plays ABE's hand, and makes it even more difficult to quickly solve an already tricky trade conflict that impacts key parts of Korea's badly weakened economy. If ABE started the trade war as the one shooting himself in the foot ("Japan v. Japan - Artificial Belligerence v. Artificial Intelligence"), MOON not only follows suit, but does so with a bazooka.
• Democracy? Pulling out of 'GSOMIA'* grabs all headlines when MOON needs a diversion from the CHO Kuk scandal. The decision came out of the blue (house), without a proper debate on the impacts.

If this looks bad, what to say of MOON's obstination to support CHO Kuk, his Justice minister nominee?

Every day brings new revelations about CHO's misdeeds. The man who posed as a champion against corruption managed to bring back memories of the two most corrupt characters in the saga that led to PARK Geun-hye's impeachment: like him, CHOI Soon-sil erected an outrageous system to illegally favor her daughter's studies and career, and like him, WOO Byung-woo brought shame on SNU Law School by bending law to destroy justice.

The controversial CHO Kuk

CHO's nomination for justice seems doomed, yet MOON Jae-in keeps supporting him as stubbornly as he does for economic advisers that have like himself no clues about economics, and accelerate a downward spiral ahead of the upcoming global downturn.

The case of CHO is much more serious, and existential for MOON, but all in denial, he doesn't seem to realize what's at stake. Everybody knew he was weak on North Korea and the economy, but failing on the very values that brought him there, on justice, on fairness, on transparency... this is the ultimate betrayal, and the president is already losing his base: recent polls show that a majority of youth have now a negative opinion of him. And Korea University students as well as Seoul National University students are starting to demonstrate following the footsteps of Ewha students, who started the movement that brought down PARK, and set the tone with apolitical approaches, focusing on wrongs to be fixed (CHOI Soon-sil's daughter benefited from illegal support at Ewha, CHO's daughter at KU).


The onus is also on lawmakers from the ruling party, who will have to face the consequences of enabling this mess (if not to face history the way GOP congressmen will for enabling Trump)... but no one wants to be the catalyst before the elections, and the scapegoat for the rout. 

No political leader, left, center, or right, seems to stand out as a credible solution for the future. Could a dangerous populist emerge from the ashes of burned illusions? Korea deserves so much better. It proved so beautifully that it could rise to the highest ideals of democracy.

Of course MOON Jae-in doesn't risk impeachment for defending one rotten apple, but his capacity to run the country could be seriously challenged if he loses all support, further undermining an already weakened nation. So let's hope the President sees reason before it's too late.

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* General Security Of Military Information Agreement

Checks and balances

Last week's Cheong Wa Dae reshuffle did little to restore MOON Jae-in's momentum.

A few months ago, the President was still enjoying record approval rates (over 80%!): people felt so relieved after bracing for an imminent military conflict, that everything else seemed trivial. Everybody knew that these peaceful summits with North Korea wouldn't lead to denuclearization, that the economy was on the wrong track, that the air we breathe was not tasting any better, but at least apocalypse had been postponed sine die*.

As time passed, survivor's euphoria dissipated, summit fatigue sunk in, and the malaise grew, with criticisms more and more centered around MOON Jae-in's very character, particularly following three disturbingly noxious axes: 

• is he being too much played by KIM Jong-un? 
• is he letting ideology too much undermine the economy? 
• is he taking too much liberty with separation of powers?

Regarding North Korea, this President does go far beyond the good cop routine. Instead of maintaining a friendly pressure, he seems to be all out pushing KIM Jong-un's agenda: the JSA transformed into a welcome mat? a no fly zone over the DMZ? joint inspection of the Hangang? massive diplomatic efforts in favor of lifting sanctions?

If Pope Francis didn't say no to a visit to Pyongyang, Macron, May, and Merkel politely but firmly rejected an Iran deal scenario. At home, the opposition as well as members of MOON's own party were not happy to discover that massive parts of the infrastructure budget had not only remained unspent, but reallocated to a fund for future infrastructure in North Korea, without any notice to the Assembly.

A few days later, MOON Jae-in convened party leaders to ask them to get ready for a KIM Jong-un visit to South Korea... What does he expect? The Liberty Korea Party to send cheerleaders along Sejong-daero and throw petals at the dictator's motorcade?

Regarding the economy, after months of denial that anything was wrong, the President fired his controversial aide JANG Ha-sung, who kept praising the massive minimum wage hike that totally crippled the nation's dynamics at the worst moment, even after KIM Dong-yeon, the Deputy Prime Minister for the Economy, conceded that the unpopular measure could have played a role in higher unemployment and slower growth.

MOON fired KIM at the same time, replacing him with HONG Nam-ki. But to fill JANG's shoes, he picked another controversial figure, KIM Soo-hyun, announcing that the new KIM would have more power than HONG. KIM Soo-hyun later said that he would be a team player, and that HONG was in charge, but the damage was done. 

A former head of the Seoul Institute, KIM Soo-hyun is not an expert in economics, but specializes in urbanism and environment. His name is associated with disastrous policies that were supposed to curb real estate speculation, but fueled it instead; first under ROH Moo-hyun, then under MOON Jae-in (as senior presidential secretary for social affairs). Both JANG and KIM mean well, and both want to help the little guy, but both end up hurting the little guy even more because both tend to puts ideology first, to neglect impact studies, and to refuse to admit mistakes or to learn from them. 

Beyond failed castings and policies, MOON Jae-in is criticized for bypassing institutions. The Deputy PM in charge of Economy is not running the show, but coping with the consequences of JANG and KIM's decisions. And these advisors don't have to be confirmed by the Assembly. So far, MOON Jae-in has imposed seven Ministers that haven't been confirmed, and the last one (CHO Myung-rae - Environment) even failed the legislative vetting.

If people at the Ministry of Economy are not comfortable with owning the failures of a handful of Cheong Wa Dae advisors, what to say of lawmakers from MOON's ruling Democratic Party? For months, they have begged the President to change policies, if he doesn't want his camp to get shellacked at the 2020 elections.

The situation is truly distressing: small businesses are barely surviving, small jobs are suppressed in record numbers, youth unemployment is skyrocketing. For too many, MOON's 'income-led' policy has lead to zero income. And it's only days after growth forecasts have been slashed from 3.1 to 2.7% that we learn that most of the government's investments in infrastructure have been secretly sacrificed for North Korean dreams.

If we're by no means talking separation of power breaches or corruption scandals in the PARK Geun-hye-CHOI Soon-sil-WOO Byung-woo vein, there is a crisis at the executive level, and MOON Jae-in must bring more serious changes to dissipate growing doubts.

ADDENDUM - 20181113 UPDATE
After the minimum wage debacle, the NPS sinking.
Cheong Wa Dae ayatollahs just rejected 3 scenarii from finance ministry to save the National Pension, even adding that they didn't mind depleting the fund to give away more today.
They could and should have given more today, by not reallocating secretly huge parts of the infrastructure budget to future North Korea plans...

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* knock on wood - Trump may still need a diversion from various probes. The only 'red nose' we want for Christmas is Rudolf's.

OH Se-hoon returns... but did he ever leave?

Wondering what OH Se-hoon's face is doing on a giant ad towering over Seochon (here seen from Gwanghwamun)?

Fun to see former Seoul mayor OH Se-hoon run in Jongno-gu, and his ad in Seochon (20160215 - twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/698941061637533696)

ICYMI, the former Seoul mayor is running for a seat in Jongno-gu. Of course, OH eyes the other end of Gyeongbokgung, Cheong Wa Dae, and the presidential elections he thought were tailored for him, back in 2010, when he got reelected in spite of his party's defeat across the capital.
 
Winning in 2017 may be a bit early, but conservatives lack a clear leader: CHUNG Mong-joon had a rough year, Kim Moo-sung is too divisive a figure, and if BAN Ki-moon renounces, OH stands a chance.

For his return, picking a left-leaning district sounds like a rather risky bet, but what a symbol: in the heart of Sadaemun, in the Seochon where his administration got hundreds of traditional houses preserved (remember: OH didn't start as a hanok hugger, thank Peter Bartholomew and friends for that bitter lesson*)...

A face off with PARK Won-soon in 2017 could be fun watching. While his successor reluctantly inaugurated his three architectural follies (new city hall, DDP, Some Sevit), and took the helm of ICLEI, OH was on a world tour, first at the Kings College in London, then advising for the Koica (Korea International Cooperation Agency) two emerging capitals for 6 month each: Kigali, Rwanda, and Lima, Peru. He published two diary books about these experiences when he returned to Seoul last year.

Looking back at these five years, OH's spell in the wilderness seems like a nice marketing plan: an exile to beef up the global / human / compassionate leader side, with interviews every six month or so to keep in touch with voters...

If you're kind enough to follow Seoul Village on Twitter (that's @THEseoulvillage), you haven't skipped a beat. Here are a few of my tweets mentioning OH (sorry for the recurring expression 'former Seoul mayor', these tweets usually don't appear next to each other):

OH Se-hoon eventually picks Jongno-gu for his return to Korea politics ("Former Seoul mayor announces bid for parliamentary election" - Yonhap News 20160117). Failure would doom his 2017 dreams. (20160117 - twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/688672052467773440)

Former mayor OH Se-hoon won't run again for Seoul (itw w Korea JoongAng Daily), but Korea? To "fulfill political and social responsibility" (20150225 - twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/570373874262544384)

Interview of former Seoul mayor OH Se-hoon, now advisor to another capital city: Kigali, Rwanda: "Oh Se-hoon reflects on battle of parties’ welfare policies" (20141119 - twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/534851138252595201)

Former Seoul mayor OH Se-hoon pleads guilty. Failed referendum did offer capital city to rivals. Planning a comeback? (20140628 - twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/482682493133258752)

Former Seoul mayor OH Se-hoon sharing his experience with Lima, Peru. also on his legacy, welfare, PARK Won-soon: "Since leaving City Hall, Oh’s career has been going places" (20131204 - twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/408019959344672768)

Ex Seoul mayor OH Se-hoon plans an international studies tour: China (Northeast Asian security), Stanford (NAFTA), Europe (20120208 - twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/167189481462562816)

PS: If you haven't much read from me on these lines lately, that's because I've also been out of town, in Europe and Africa. Don't worry, Seoul remains on my mind, and I'll be back in a few weeks, but I won't run.


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* see "Am I My Hanok's Keeper? Peter E. Bartholomew's Defense and Illustration of Korean Architecture"

K-Pope mania hits Seoul, Jongno-style

So Pope Francis landed in South Korea, welcomed by the traditional gun salute from the North...

Stalin asked 'The Pope! How many divisions has he got?" North Korea's suggested answer: Pope Francis is worth 5 rockets
twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/499808764644429825

... and in the advertised set of wheels - only in a darker color than expected:

(July 28) In Seoul, Pope Francis' Soul will be white. And branded Kia.
twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/493663654928474113
(August 14) Pope Francis' Soul is greyer than scheduled
twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/499735563646169090

The Pope's program comprises at least 10 stations, from the Blue House today to Myeongdong Cathedral on August 18, with an Assumption mass in Daejeon World Cup Stadium tomorrow, and a mass for the beatification of Korea's 124 martyrs on Gwanghwamun Square the 16th, which requires extra security around Sejongno:

(@pearswick: Korean police to build huge wall inside Seoul for Pope visit - only those registered can enter)
Meet Seoul's inner fortress wall: the one erected downtown for Pope Francis' visit
twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/495858701853396992

But everything seems ready for the big day:

Gwanghwamun more than ever a cross-road - Seoul's ready for Pope Francis' visit
twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/499567502276300800

Even I am not taking any chances:

Do something, quick! I don't want to be stuck to 666 followers when Pope Francis visits
twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/499432267295375361
(PS: thanks to the kind tweeters who lifted me away from that Number of the Beast - even if I won't be saved that easily)

The Pope will also visit several sites in Chungcheongnam-do: Solmoe Shrine in Dangjin, Haemi castle and shrine in Seosan. A stop at the martyr shrine in Seosomun Park is also planned. BTW here's the winning project in a recent competition for this historic site:

Speaking of Seosomun and Catholicism: just off Gwanghwamun, the Seoul Museum of History proposes an exhibition until October 31 on Seoul's East and West small gates (Seosomun and Dongsomun), and the - to say the least - not always festive history of Korean catholicism:

Kim Dae-geon, Korea's first Catholic priest. Among Saenamteo martyrs to be blessed by Pope Francis
twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/499376326625595393

More tweets about Pope Francis


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EXCLUSIVE: the first test shot taken from the first North Korean drone

South Korea recently found North Korean drones containing records of aerial views of such strategic sites as Cheong Wa Dae or NeNe Chicken farms. 

These high tech Unmanned Aerial Vehicles were built to avoid detection, with hand-painted cardboard recycled from a piñata, super 8 cameras, and elaborate engineless propulsion systems (forensics detected traces of Mentos and Coke). South Korean authorities don't know how many drones roamed the country, but each one was numbered.

A student found drone #1 on Yeouido while studying cherry blossoms and spring bottoms, and we managed to get the records (from the UAV, not the student's shameful snapshots). They include the first picture taken during the drone's maiden trial in a North Korean military facility.
 
We submitted this exclusive document to eminent Baekduologists:

Exclusive: the first test shot taken from the first North Korean drone

Experts overwhelmingly see a 2-ton missile, complete with a nuclear warhead and an activation button. Bolts look like they may have been fashioned in Pakistan, but the hairdo is definitely North Korean. 

On the second picture, which we submitted to the NIS (they seem to have lost it), alarming fumes rise from the warhead. From a tubular part branded Pyongyang Paeksan Tobacco, which leads to a Pakistan-DPRK JV, and may confirm the covert role of Abdul Qadeer Khan in North Korea's nuclear program.

See also: "KIM Jong-un's Movember Selfie"

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MMCA Seoul

Last week, I visited the Blue House, east of Gyeongbokgung. Not the one to the north of the palace (Cheong Wa Dae), but the one SUH Do-ho erected in the new Seoul branch of the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art:

"Home within home within home within home" by Do-ho SUH: a life-size hanok in a town house in a museum. SUH's fabric structures are always spectacular, and visitors to the MMCA Seoul can enjoy this one from various interesting angles, including from the mezzanine (here), and of course from within.

If you're familiar with this excuse for a blog, you've followed this museum project from the start, seen it change names several times, and even virtually toured it from the sky (see previous episodes, including "MOCA goes MMCA - Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art" and "MMCA Seoul from above"). For years I've roamed the neighborhood, watched it unveil its old and new volumes, and counted the days to November 12th (official inauguration), feeling the same excitement as before the opening of Gwanghwamun Square*. In both cases, I knew the architecture wouldn't not be as great as it could have been, but I couldn't wait to see how a neighborhood I loved would integrate a new cultural landmark doubled with a new space opened to pedestrians. The kind of places that make urbanists and art lovers curious.

Don't worry, I won't follow the future MMCA Cheongju until its completion. The next branch of the museum is expected to open by 2015 in a former tobacco factory, and shall devote large volumes to the storage and conservation of artworks, a stimulating challenge for new media and interactive installations, and not only at the hardware level.

Hardware and software, artworks and museums, fabric homes within concrete shells... shall I start with the contents or the container? Maybe the latter, because I knew that whatever the circumstances, I was sure to experience an emotional moment in the old Gimusa staircase:

Summer 2009 (during the ASYAAF, a few months before the renovation started)

Back to half-round one, November 14, 2013. I'm so glad they kept the original handrail.

And once you've reached the rooftop, the view can't be more royal (from Bugaksan to Inwansan, from Cheong Wa Dae to Gyeongbokgung to Gwanghwamun).

So. I came back - again - on November 14th for a closer look, and still then, it was hard to tell if the architecture would work as planned in cruise mode: at that early stage, not all spaces were open, and not all connections between floors and buildings were operational. Except for the exhibition on the "Birth of a museum: the MMCA construction archive project", most of the upper floors, their cultural facilities and terraces were off limits for lambda visitors. The extensive museum shop didn't have a bookstore, and food-wise, the cafeteria was to start only on November 15th, the restaurant and digital book cafe a bit later.

Which left us the food court, but that didn't feel like a punition: we were by the window facing the Gyeonbokgung and majestic autumn trees, enjoying surprisingly delicious dishes, watching visitors and strollers cross the public madang with smiles on their faces (even those who were not sipping the free coffee offered to passers-by). Bonus: since we were eating in the food court, we could not see the cube hosting it, definitely not the finest moment in modern architecture.

Actually, the most interesting part of the complex remains the contrast between the old Gimusa's main building and the Office of Royal Genealogy, a newly rebuilt hanok. And as advertized, many things happen underground.

I'll leave it up to art critics to judge the inaugural exhibitions (which will end between February and July next year to introduce asynchronicity in the calendar of events). On paper, my veneration for The Blind Librarian drew me to the Borghesian "Aleph Project", and its impossible point of convergence, but of course you can only try to describe the spot where all points of views of the universe can be seen, and wait for sparks (I mean less literally than in Edwin van der Heide's "Evolving Spark Network"**). As the project unfolds, let's see if MMCA Seoul becomes Dali's "Gare de Perpignan".

MMCA capella? Classical music, underground location

Resolutely contemporary, the Seoul branch doesn't have any permanent collection, even if MMCA seizes the opportunity to display parts of its extensive collections, in "Zeitgeist Korea" for the inauguration. You'll find Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries among the "site specific projects", with the head-turner of an installation a tad less subversive than in the one I mentioned in a previous focus:

YHCHI @ MMCA Seoul - in the background, one of the 'madang' around which part of the museum unfolds.

For another inaugural exhibition, "Connecting_Unfolding", six curators selected seven artists, prolonging sometimes their dialogs in talks given in situ - here, Marc Lee with curator Bernhard Serexhe:

Marc Lee presents the 'soft' part of his "10,000 moving cities": when you select a city, the relevant images, videos, and tweets are sourced from the web, and projected in real-time on 3D city blocks.

There's no shortage of art spaces in Korea, in Seoul, and in the neighborhood, but this one can help lift contemporary arts in general and new media / interactive art in particular to new levels because it has the potential to bring new audiences, and to become a prestigious international crossroads. Its location and openness were key assets from the start, and I'm curious to see the creative / institutional platform work full swing.

• MMCA Seoul (check dates and book online: mmca.go.kr)

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* see "Gwanghwamun Square - Preview"
** in a completely different field, the ECM expo set the sensory experience bar very high in Seoul:

Park 2 Day 1 in pictures

After 2 ROHs, 2 KIMs, and 1 LEE, I woke up with my first President PARK this morning*. The second one for many Koreans, who still now define PARK Geun-hye as "the daughter of".

The daughter of whom? Of PARK Chung-hee, of course. But the daughter of what, exactly? Of a "dictator", confirmed the BBC today, along with most international media. Of a "strongman", according to the guidelines suggested by conservative PR outlets in Korea... guidelines followed by the TIME editors, who controversially changed their December 17 cover, initially planned with the "D" word:

One thing is sure: the officials in charge of her inauguration in Yeouido could have picked a better TV background for the swear-in moment than this unsmiling Westerner with sunglasses, like a Man In Black keeping an eye on some valuable CIA asset. Even if Secretary of State John Kerry skipped the event, NK propagandists will probably photoshop a puppeteer hand out of this dark background:

Worse: if you enlarge the picture, you get Yingluck Shinawatra, a person mostly known as Taksin Shinawatra's sister, even now that she is Thailand's Prime Minister, a job she owes only to this familial tie:

So you'll probably see many official pictures framed, like this AP shot, in a tight close-up...

... unless PR wizzards opt for this picture, taken later in the day, during PARK's surrealistic stop at Gwanghwamun Square, on her way to Cheong Wa Dae:

photo Yonhap News

 
Here, the new president opened a giant purse, revealing a teletubbiesque tree of hope from which she randomly picked of low hanging fruits: wishes for a better welfare written by Korean citizens. She read a couple of them aloud, like a mom would do with poems from her kids, before rushing back to her stretch limo, as if last year's campaign never ended, with its "daughter/mother of the nation" positioning**, and its incessant succession of symbolic photo ops (eg below the tightest close up I shot from the future president - "Park Geun-hye bballi bballi campaigning" - October 2012 on SeoulVillage's YouTube channel):



 
PARK made one last stop (in front of Cheongwadae Sarangchae, welcomed by traditional music and friendly neighbors from Cheongun-dong and Hyoja-dong), before going back to where it all began: a Blue House where cameras followed her all the way up the grand staircase.
 

 
On this Oscar night and in spite of the hanbok, Park Geun-hye did much better than Jennifer Lawrence. Apparently, no Clark Gable was waiting for her. Anyway, time to lower the curtain and to get to work.

A reframed picture, a colorful tree, a big red staircase... of course these reductive images are not all there is to remember from such a historic day. There were also political messages, as expected focused on the 3 elephants in nowaday's Korean corridor: North Korea (the "biggest victim" from its own nuclear test), economy, and welfare.

But still** as this stage, we can't tell for sure who the person known as "the daughter of" truly is, and what she will eventually be remembered as.


Seoul Village 2013
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* technically, one should add GOH Kun, who was acting president during ROH Moo-hyun's impeachment in 2004.
** see "The Anipang Election: Park wins big, but who won?"