10월 24일에 강수민 선생님의 생일파티가 있었습니다. 레스토랑에 선생님의 지인들과 함께 파티를 하는 모습이 즐거워 보입니다. 음식들은 모두 레스토랑에서 직접 만들었다고 하는데 정말 아기자기해 보이네요.
손 맛 - The Taste of Hands (October 9th) - Last day of the relational Kimchi project: Today gave the visitors of the Seoul Art Center Festival the last opportunity to chose their Kimchi by the hands that made it. And the activity was as popular as always. This time students from MeeWha’s conceptual drawing class and even staffers from other art installations pitched in to help us serve several hundred people with Kimchi toast sandwiches. What remains are mostly happy bellies filled with a fusion-style veggie snack and about 1000 napkin notes that will be delivered back to the six Kimchi-producing Ajuma ladies…
손 맛 - The Taste of Hands - second batch of napkin messages: The visitors of Yeouido Art Festival and our Kimchi eaters impress me with their dedication to write thoughtful and at times wittily illustrated napkin notes to the Ajuma (kimchi manufacturing ladies). Most precious are the almost artful stains of chilly hotsauce and Kimchi remnants on the napkin paper.
손 맛 - The Taste of Hands (October 8th) - The relational Kimchi party continues: Loads of fresh kimchi awaited a cheerful crowd today at the Seoul Art Center Festival. The great majority approves of the idea of the Kimchi sandwich and consider it as a new snack option from what I am hearing.
손 맛 - The Taste of Hands (October 7th) - Forwarding the napkin messages: Today I went back to the Seoksu and Shindong market to the same six vendors from the week before. I bought a new batch of Kimchi from each of them (for this weekend’s Doshira+ Food Drawing Café) and to hand over the napkin messages that the festival visitors wrote to them. It was great that YoonJi Lee read some of the messages to the Ajuma (vendor lady) who kept smiling with acknowledgement.
손 맛 - The Taste of Hands (October 3rd): We had no idea how popular Kimchi sandwich toasts could get. This Sunday afternoon there was for hours a long line of people waiting in front of our container installation patiently waiting to participate in the food experiment. Good thing that Hye-Ryeon volunteered to help us out next to Juuri our fabulous assistant. We were also surprised to see how most of our Kimchi eaters took time to write a feedback note on the napkin which we will pass on to the makers of their Kimchi.
손 맛 - The Taste of Hands (October 2nd): We were not sure how the public would respond to our Kimchi installation experiment. But it turned out that most festival visitors were open-minded and curious to assemble and eat their first toasted Kimchi sandwiches. From what we know, most of them actually liked it. Instead of selecting the Kimchi by appearance and taste, the hungry visitors select their Kimchi through the photograph of the hand that made the Kimchi. In Korean the word “home-made” translates into “the taste of hands” since it is the knowhow, experience and love of its makers that influences the food that comes to our table.
The Makers of Kimchi show their hands: In order to better connect the visitors of our food installation at the art festival in the heart of Seoul, we want to see from what hands the Kimchi that we are buying is coming from. MeeWha and I went around Shindong fresh market today to ask the vendors if it is okay to take a photograph of their Kimchi-making hands. None of the Ajuma (ladies) refuses. One even asks us why we don’t take a picture of her pretty face… In the end we bought about 5kg of Kimchi.
Kimchi Installation Project at Seoul Art Center Festival 2010: The Seoul-based artist MeeWha I asked me to organize a food-related project at her “Doshira Food Drawing Cafe” during the Hi Seoul Festival at Hangang park of Yoeido island. Together with a thirs artist, SanGyong, we will be offering a number of interactive activities that connect with the audience through food in a designated container.
Chaneung Park becomes new owner of Dancing Cook: Today at the end of the Seoksu Art Project 2010 the director of Stone&Water stepped forward as the new owner of Dancing Cooks (the first artist restaurant in Seoksu Market). The APAP tour guests among them important representatives of the Korean art world witnessed a short ceremony where the shop key and certificate of ownership changed hands for a symbolic sum of 1000 Wong (about $1.00) from the artist team Markuz Wernli Saitô/Hansam Son to Mr. Chaneung Park. The new owner is dedicated to maintain the integrity of this social kitchen experiment and to keep it open to the public. It is understood that Mr. Park will need the support and goodwill of market people, local artists and Seoksu residents to fill the space to live through regular activities and events.
