도시 영화제

My plan is to see "My Father's House":

But "The Saving of Goliath" (or the Structure of Goliath?) also looks interesting.

Branding Seoul, Part 2

From the subway wall at 광화문역.

Yes, a major branding effort on the part of City Hall to escape the mediocrity of "Hi, Seoul."  But the way they're going about this is a little confusing.  How will pasting up our ideas on a wall help the city generate a 2-3 word "motto" for Seoul?  Still, the wall itself is interesting.  My favorite is someone who drew "hell train" for the city motto.

And there was stuff for the kids!

이화동박물관

Finally, the museum is open again (until June).  This, along with a number of other small galleries and stores on the 낙산 공원 side of 이화동.  What was there?  Well, the museum bills itself as belonging "to its residents by holding exhibitions in museum, galleries, and ateliers that are located within the village and through participation of artists and professionals in the field of culture and art."  So--the displays in the museum are donated, and reflect pretty much what the residents wanted to show.  For example, there are some antiques, especially antiques that speak to the humble origins of the neighborhood--e.g., a 붕어빵 maker with holes at the bottom for 연탄, or 도자기 that have been repaired several times.  But there are also tvs, jam boxes, telephones, and even a flat-screened tv . . .There are also collections of "artistic" photos of the neighborhood, family photos, and what are pretty much cognitive maps of the neighborhood drawn by elementary school students.  The other galleries show other antiques along with contemporary pieces of art.  I was fortunate enough to have a guid who showed me the main museum and the blacksmith's shop

고가에서 봄

In the continued efforts of different groups (including the Mayor's office) to turn the Seoul Station Overpass (서울역 고가) into a park, today was another "open house" event, with all of us parading up and down the highway.  And yet, there are other groups who have not embraced the idea--the merchants around the overpass are opposed, and suggest that the park will destroy their businesses.  My favorite shot is of my kids chalking the street in front of a phalanx of police . . .

우리의 서울이야기--마지작 강의

This was the 10th of the series--and ending with the question of tourism and branding.  An interesting, if somewhat anticlimatic, ending.  After all, the series of really less about branding than eliciting the kind of city Seoul-ites want to inhabit.  Ending with the question of "brand" takes it back to the dismal science, as if any discussion was really about the economic bottom line.