No matter how much preparation you put into visiting an art fair – planning which stalls to visit, estimating how much time you are likely to spend at each – you will almost always end up spending your time differently from the way you originally intended: some stalls will engage you in conversation, telling you … [Read More]
Category: Festivals (page 24)
Korean designers at 100% Design and Tent London
The early autumn season seems to be getting busier and busier. More and more things to do, and no more hours to do them in. So this year, I’m not visiting the design shows at Olympia and Brick Lane. For the record though, here are the Korean designers showing at the Truman Brewery. I’d like … [Read More]
A look at the 2016 London Korean Film Festival programme
Oooh oooh oooh my favourite film of 2012, and in a shortlist for my film of the decade is being screened again. I thought it would never find its way back into a London theatre and that I’d never have the pleasure of seeing it again, because it’s not the sort of movie that they’re … [Read More]
Festival news: the first edition of LEAFF announces its programme
The London East Asia Film Festival announced the full programme of its first full “edition” this week, and there is a very strong Korean selection. As already announced, there will be a retrospective of one of Korea’s best known directors, Park Chan-wook, along with a screening of his most recent movie. In addition, there are … [Read More]
Concert notes: Jeong Ga Ak Hoe at the British Museum
Although the official opening concert of K-Music 2016 is Nah Youn-sun with Ulf Wakenius on 20 September, the British Museum’s Chuseok celebrations in collaboration with the KCC have given us several performances by the contemporary gugak group Jeong Ga Ak Hoe. They presented a programme of traditional music in the Korean Gallery on the morning … [Read More]
Kang Ik-joong’s Floating Dreams for Korean reunification
Kang Ik-joong’s installation entitled Floating Dreams is a symbol of hope for the unification of Korea. Moored on the Thames outside Tate Modern, the installation is an assembly of 500 drawings in the shape of a cube – four square sides and a flat upper surface each featuring a grid of 10 x 10 pictures … [Read More]
Exhibition news: Korean artists at Start Art Fair
START Art Fair runs for four days from 15 September at the Saatchi Gallery. Korean artists will be strongly represented, firstly by London-based Skipwiths, by five Korean galleries and finally one Parisian gallery. START provides international galleries with a global platform on which to show their artists in London, one of the most important cities … [Read More]
Event news: Park Chan-wook retrospective @LEAFF 2016
The London East Asia Film Festival, in its first full outing (20-30 October), hosts a Park Chan-wook retrospective, including a screening of his 2016 movie Handmaiden. The director will be present for that screening, and to introduce a remastering of his Lady Vengeance. It’s nice that a few of his shorts will be screened as … [Read More]
Korean films at the 2016 BFI London Film Festival
If I were to draw up a list of feature films that I simply *had* to see this year, the following three would be on it. Thanks to the BFI selectors for securing them for the festival. There’s also a short film showing. Text below is from the BFI website. Tickets go on sale to … [Read More]
Kang Ik-joong’s Floating Dreams installed on the Thames
For one reason or another, today at the office I had my eyes glued to my PC screen most of the day. I didn’t have much time to enjoy the view from my window, from where I can see the Thames around the Greenwich peninsula. Which meant that I managed to miss one of the … [Read More]
Event news: Chuseok celebrations in Kingston
There will be some Chuseok festivities on Saturday 17 September in Kingston marketplace, 12-4pm, organised by Korean British Cultural Exchange and supported by Kingston Council. It is said to be the first Korean street/outdoor festival to be held in Kingston town centre, and is certainly to be welcomed as an alternative focus to celebrate Koreanness there now the summer festival in … [Read More]
Fringe visit: The Tiniest Frog Prince in the World
I was feeling grumpy when I went into this show and had decided I was not going to enjoy it. I had rushed to get there having just got off the train. It had started late, and if it overran I wasn’t going to have time to get to the next show. And I’m not … [Read More]
Fringe visit: Girl
Modl Theatre Company is perhaps best known in this country for its work aimed at younger audiences, but it is a diverse company which also engages with more adult material too. And you can’t get much more adult than a graphic description of the surgical procedure that the Japanese forced upon young Korean girls so … [Read More]
Fringe visit: Dandelion’s Story
What on earth makes a theatre company think that creating a piece about doggy poo is a good idea? How do you persuade an actress that taking on the role of a talking turd is a big break for her? Well, firstly, this production is aimed at children, and kids of all ages find poo … [Read More]
Fringe visit: Tiger in Blossom
This is a simple retelling for children of the Korean folk tale of the Tiger and the Woodcutter, in which a woodcutter, about to be killed by a tiger in the forest, persuades the beast that he used to be human, and is in fact his elder brother. The initially sceptical tiger eventually falls for … [Read More]
Fringe visit: The Song of Beast (after Hamlet)
Imagine Hamlet scripted / co-directed by Park Chan-Wook (Oldboy), Ryu Seung-wan (Veteran / Unjust) and Yoon Jong-bin (Nameless Gangster), with dialogue input from Yang Ik-joon (Breathless), and music by Cho Young-wook (Oldboy) and you’re starting to get close what this production is like. The setting is moved from Denmark to an abattoir which has a … [Read More]