Art and Culture

And now it's time for our daily arts and culture segment with our Michelle Kim. Today, she brings us a preview of events happening over the weekend.

Hello Michelle

[Reporter : ] Hello Conn-young

So what do you have for us today[Reporter : ] Today, I'll start by telling you about a musical and a play that are currently running in Seoul, both of which are modern adaptations of famous works. Here are the details.

The musical based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's first novel, "The Sorrows of Young Werther", is back for an encore performance and is now playing at the Universal Arts Center.
The story is loosely based on Goethe's life and is a love story between young Werther and a beautiful young lady named Charlotte.
It's love at first sight for Werther when he meets Charlotte at a glamorous ball, and he falls deeply in love with her, even though he knows she is already engaged to a man named Albert who is 11 years her senior.
He struggles for years with his forbidden love for Charlotte, until finally making a radical decision about his life.
Since its premiere here 12 years ago, the musical has been praised by critics and loved by viewers.
According to one of the show's producers, this year's show is more extravagant than the last two years ago.

[Interview : Kim Min-jung, Producer] "This year, the show has more dynamic features than it did two years ago. We have a full 14-member orchestra and restructured the stage to create a more extravagant setting so the audience can better engage with the story".

The musical continues at the Universal Art Center until December 16th.

The play "Shouting Macbeth!" takes a modern approach to the Shakespearean tragedy by comparing the greed of modern man to Macbeth's greed for power.
The plot is loosely based on Shakespeare's masterpiece, but is set in a club to underline the passions of the characters.
To create the atmosphere of the club, the theater has been transformed and the seats removed, eliminating the boundary between the actors and the audience.
The play continues at Art Space Seoul until November 4th.
I think it's going to be interesting to see what the directors and cast can do to update such famous works.

[Reporter : ] I agree. I think "Shouting Macbeth" will be especially interesting because it's such a radical interpretation of a work we all know so well.
I also think it will just be fun to enjoy the loud, upbeat music in the club atmosphere.

It definitely sounds like a play that young people will enjoy. And now moving on, what else do you have for us[Reporter : ] Switching gears, sculptor Lee Hyungkoo has a new and very unique exhibition that blends science and art in playful constructions featuring elements of fantasy and reality.
Lee first gained recognition through a series of exhibitions that deal with the structure of the body. In this exhibition, he explores the human head and face.

In his current solo exhibition, sculptor Lee Hyungkoo manipulates the structure of the human skull in ways that are simultaneously eerie and comical, reflecting the artist's dark yet whimsical style.
The exhibition, "Face Trace", consists of replicas of 12 skulls of people with different ethnicities.
To create the skulls, Lee used resin, stainless steel wire, acrylic and aluminum.
He then created molds of parts of his own face and grafted them onto the skulls to transform the expressions and features of each face.
Lee drew inspiration from phrenology, a pseudoscience based on the idea that mental ability and character can be predicted by skull shape.
In phrenology, each facial feature and spot on the head has a different meaning.
Translated by Lee, the meanings change again.

[Interview : Lee Hyung-gu, Artist] "I've always been interested in the human face, so I created 12 sculptures by replicating the skulls of 12 different people of different ethnicities. When I added the cast of my facial structure, every head structure came out looking different. Through the mask casting process, I was able to produce 12 very different looking faces, although the features all came from one face".

"Face Trace" continues at Gallery Skape in Hannam-dong until November 23rd.
That sounds like a unique exhibition how was it[Reporter : ] Well, it was definitely something different. Viewers who are interested in the artist and his work might want to do a little research before heading to the gallery because there is no exhibition catalogue and there are no descriptions alongside the individual works on display.

That's good to know. And now to wrap things up, you have the events bulletin for us[Reporter : ] Yes, I do. In today's bulletin, I have a concert by K-pop balladeers 2AM, one featuring Kim Bum-soo and Park Jung-hyun, and another with Shin Seung-hoon. Here are the details.

[Reporter : ed: jenny] This bulletin features 3 events.

K-pop balladeers 2AM will be performing at Olympic Park's Olympic Hall on November 24th and 25th. The program will feature the group's biggest hits and solo performances by each of the four band members.

Singers Kim Bum-soo and Park Jung-hyun will be performing a holiday concert at Olympic Park's Gymnastics Stadium from December 23rd to 25th. The two musicians are promising to warm the hearts of their audience with songs about love, peace and the holiday season.

Singer Shin Seung-hoon will mark the end of his Korean tour in Seoul at the SK Handball Stadium at Olympic Park. The concert runs from December 23rd to the 25th, and will feature some of his hits alongside new material.

Thank you for the update

[Reporter : ] My pleasure

NOV 01, 2012

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Reporter : dainee@arirang.co.kr