If you’ve followed us or seen our blog before, you’ll know we like all things Korean and we like to show and share it all with you, from lists of K-Dramas, K-Beauty and K-Pop as well as the numerous Idols and Actors who pop up (or is that K-pop up) in our Annual Top 100 and recently we went to the Korea Wave Exhibition. Well, last weekend we were off again to another event, this time Korea Now and here is what we found.
Korea Now was billed as ‘From bucket list travel inspiration to mouth-watering Korean food, live music and art installations in 360-degree Ultra HD, immerse yourself in all things Korea’.
It took place in London’s St. Giles Square (the plaza underneath Centre Point) and in the open gallery that is Outernet. The massive screens of the walk-in gallery were filled with a constant moving mass of images, from swirling patterns to Sci-fi ships to traditional painted scenes brought to life with animated people and growing cities, while various musicians played mostly traditional instruments – while we were there, the musical act Muto, played the Ajaeng (a kind of large, stringed instrument, played in a sitting position with a bow) and gave a beautiful, eerie sound that is both traditional and modern.
We wandered through the large screen spaces and then into an exhibition that at first looked like some random photos of empty holiday apartments. Then we noticed that the exterior moved, whether it was the sea or a waterfall, the outside space was a video playing on a loop and the frame (the interior) gave a kind of separation from the movement with a calm stillness. The artist Lim Changmin’s pieces are large and impressive.
We left the art space and meandered into the main area, where it was a QR Code adventure course, every stall was promoting something, from travel to Korea to Beauty Products and many were giving away freebies, so long as you scanned their QR Code and filled out a survey. We left with a bag full of keyrings, travel tags, books and leaflets.
Next we followed the path around and followed the smells too, because it wouldn’t be something to do with Korea if there wasn’t food! One side of the square was filled with a long line of catering stalls, selling everything from crisps to Barbecued Beef in Brioche. We opted for a Korean hot dog (Veggie version of course), made of Mozzarella, coated in breadcrumbs and doused in Tomato Ketchup. As always, this was Yuuuumy!! And that was mostly it, we felt that it was missing a bar. It really needed a Soju and makgeolli (or Mock-jolly after a couple of bowls!!) seller. It’s a big part of Korean life and it was missing from the experience.
So we left in search of a pub and a pint of beer – well it would have been rude not to!
In all it was a worthwhile event, as always with these things it was a little lacking, but it still had some interesting stuff and would have brought a lot of people who know little or nothing of Korea little bit closer to the mysterious country on the other side of the world.
Well, there you go another little outing shared with you. If you like these reviews and everything we do here, join the email list and get the post emailed to you each week and we will be back next week with another post, probably Coffee or walking-related!
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