This week's cultural news 1

Money is a ubiquitous part of our everyday lives. No one is free from the influence of money.

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[Interview : Jeong Ji-an, Visitor] "It's something that I need in life. It lets me do what I want and buy things I need".

It turns out that there's something else that money can also do. Money can become works of art.

Most artists make money from art, but artist Byun Young-hwan [변영환] says that money itself can be art. Let's take a closer look at his very unique personal exhibition.

[Interview : Byun Young-hwan, Artist] "I wanted to make a statement about capitalism using currency, the very embodiment of capitalist ideas. Of course, currency symbolizes monetary value, but I wanted to utilize the appearance and shape of currency as tools for talking about capitalism in today's world".

The artwork made of money is on exhibit at a bar in a college town. Visitors who follow the music inside are greeted by a world of money - a dragon holds a crystal of money, and flowers made of money are in full bloom.

The artists's personal favorite piece is this vase.

[Interview : Byun Young-hwan, Artist] "I like this piece the best because it represents a world that blooms from money and capital".

To create these pieces, the artist had to spend much of his time surrounded by money. That experience led him to try and define the specific reasons for the existence of money.

[Interview : Byun Young-hwan, Artist] "I looked up the function of money in the encyclopedia, and it said that money was a unit of storage, a medium of exchange, and a tool for accumulating wealth. I wanted to add another function, being raw material for art".

His exhibition does not only consist of putting works on display.

[Interview : Ahn Su-yeon, Visitor] "I would never have thought anything like this. It was a little shocking".

[Interview : Jeong Ji-oh, Visitor] "I think he was trying to express the value of money by using actual money".

His performances treat money as if it were worthless, satirizing the materialism that has swallowed the whole world.

[Interview : Byun Young-hwan, Artist] "The message here is that money is a means, not an end. We need to return money to its true function of being a means to make the world a utopia".

[SOV]
[Interview : ] "Money makes rich people poor and poor people rich~"

One of the advantages of the exhibition is that it is being held at a bar, so visitors can enjoy themselves until late at night. They can listen to music, look at the pieces, and chat with other visitors.

[Interview : Shin Hang, Singer] "When I first saw Byun Young-hwan's work, I loved that his way of expressing himself was using material that were directly connected to his subject and his philosophy. His work is wonderful".

When an artist draws a picture on a normal 1000 bill and creates art, the bill acquires more value than it had before. The value of money changes depending on how it is used.

[Interview : Byun Young-hwan, Artist] "Every /1000 bill has a space where there is an invisible image, called a negative image. It's blank space, so I drew in a dragon head to represent the Year of the Dragon. I wanted to draw attention to the ambiguous line between money and art. Is this considered a work of art, or is it just currency

The exhibition "Money-topia" depicts our capitalistic society and the people who live in it, always on a quest for more money. It is a good opportunity to reflect on the values of the modern world.

[STUDIO]

Well the more money he uses the more he'll bring down inflation.
It's great shock value and the venue looks great too.