Koffee & Kpop

Here’s another one from the archives, an exhibit called Delight Seoul that ran in Insadong from December 2020 to June 2021. My friends and I went in February and it was still pretty crowded.

I’ll be honest: many exhibitions like this one are what I call Instagram Exhibitions. They’re pretty to look at and experience but their main focus for a lot of people ends up being places to take cute Instagram photos.

According to their website:

Through the use of art, lighting, visuals, sound, and other media, the creators of Delight—everything from artists to designers, engineers, and storytellers—aim to convey a wide array of sensations to every guest. Join us and embark on an exhilarating exploration of Seoul’s history, life, and identity that brings together the past and the present, the real and the imaginary, the distant and the familiar.

Currently, the exhibition is on-going in London, and is slightly different from the one I visited in Seoul several years ago, with its focus being bringing Seoul’s culture to a place unfamiliar with it. Several exhibits are the same, such as the moon and the lanterns, but others are different.

The first thing you see upon entering is the phases of the moon lighting up a giant screen. The second is a room full of larger-than-life representations of the Chinese Zodiac signs. At that point in time, I believed I was an Ox so I have pictures of myself with the Ox, but it turns out I am actually a rat. (Probably in more ways than one.)

The next room was the star of the show. Filled with colored lanterns that changed color every so often, and mirrors aligning the walkway, it was easy to spend some time in the room, taking photos and watching others take photos.

Another room had vertical digital signs with words printed on them that again, was pretty to look at and a great backdrop for pictures, but underwhelming on an artistic level despite the fact that I know a lot of work went into designing the background images and font work. I wish they had incorporated something other than the name of the exhibit into the words being projected.

They also had a camera booth where you could take your picture and it would be displayed on a large digital board for a short time, which I did. I’ve blurred the faces but you can tell we’re all wearing masks as it was 2021, just a year after the pandemic ripped apart the world.

The next room had a bunch of signs, including stop signs, yield signs, pedestrian signs, etc. I particularly enjoyed this room because I think there is art in these street signs that we so often overlook in our daily lives. There was also a large neon “Seoul” light which was pretty cool.

For some reason there was a merry-go-round in one of the rooms. I’m not sure what it represented.

In the last room, all four walls were digital and showed various images around Seoul, as well as historical pictures showing Korean culture, including palaces, people wearing hanbok, etc. One of my favorite pieces was the image of a haetae, a mythical creature believed to protect against fires (and Seoul mascot known as Haechi) having a bright blue moustache.

One of the things I love about living just outside Seoul is that there are so many exhibits like these that are always going on so there’s always things to do in the city. If I remember correctly, the exhibit cost between 15,000 – 20,000 won, or $10-$15 USD. I’ve included two videos at the bottom of this post so be sure to check them out!