Seoul Design Olympiad

Greetings again from Seoul!

I went to the city's Olympic Stadium today. Twenty years ago, it hosted the Summer Olympic Games, which also happened to be the last appearance for the Soviet and East German powerhouses; today, it is hosting the Seoul Design Olympiad, which celebrates Seoul's designation as the World Design Capital for the year 2010. The huge stadium - able to seat 100,000 - was turned into a huge art museum in all nooks and crannies; I was dead tired by the time I was finished in four hours. Here are a few finds today; these don't do the event justice, due to the huge depth of topics covered.

This isn't part of the Design Olympiad; this is a permanent bronze statue of Sohn Kee-chung (1912-2002), whose story I previously shared. In the 1936 Berlin Games, he won the men's marathon event, though since Korea was part of Japan at that time, he had to run as a Japanese athlete under the name of Kitei Son, and his gold medal was added to the Japanese tally.

World War II canceled the next two Olympics, but when the Games resumed in London in 1948, South Korea finally fielded its own team. Another gold medal wouldn't come until 1976, however. Monuments toward the rear honor the various South Korean medalists of all the summer Olympics since 1948 London, though as South Korea has been winning lots of medals in the past decade or two, the later years don't have a complete list of medalists.

I am entering the stadium from the south. On the pavement can be seen an image of Hodori, the baby tiger who was the mascot of the 1988 Games.

The stadium is covered with various plastic discards from Seoul's citizens, forming "the world's largest plastic stadium." Some statistics, according to a sign at the entrance:

• 1,763,360 objects
• 75,680 kilograms of total weight
• 3,638 workers needed to install
• 488 trucks involved
• 40 days of installation
• 4 elements: fire, water, air, earth

The field level had some corporate pavilions lining the running tracks; I checked out a few of them, but didn't find much of interest. Behind the lower bleachers were long-term plans for Seoul's beautification through 2030.

There are some pieces of art behind the lower and upper bleachers. I ended up circling the stadium four times to see them all.

These urinals (non-functional, art only) are at different heights to accommodate men of various heights. The unusually height of the rightmost urinal is to accommodate the following:

• You are over 2.5 meters tall.
• You are of any height, and have overeaten or had too many drinks.
• Your name is Mann Coulter, and you really wanna show that you do have a big dick under your mini. (Okay, I made that one up.)
  

This artwork, by Cha Ilgu, is called "Trace of Time." It's actually a whiteboard which can handle erasable pen messages. The clock hand is the eraser.

This animated art by No Seungkwan shows a puzzle of Korean letters, being shuffled around to form different words here and there.

Kwon Sunhan has this animated art, named "Time Look." This is a digital clock in the form of four sexy women. When a digit changes, the appropriate woman takes her shirt off, to reveal a new shirt with the new digit. I liked this one.

A detailed look at some of the plastic objects hanging on the wall. They include water and soda bottles, motor oil bottles, pans, and all sorts of other containers.

Some of the areas showcase art from other cities around the world. For example, this is a proposal for a "Waterfront Tower" near New York's South Street Seaport, in the shape of a long pier that has been lifted out of the East River and stood on its end.

Some Parisian fashion. I like this one too.

Beijing also had some nice offerings. Here is an actual torch used in this year's Olympic torch relay. I'd love to be back in Beijing soon; for now, I'll settle for this.

Red is a very good color in China, in the form of luck and wealth. On the other hand, red is a very bad color in Korea, in the form of blood (death), and in South Korea, in the form of communism. Red is so bad that Line 1 on Seoul's subway system had to switch its color to dark blue, after using red for a few decades. Strangely enough, South Korea's soccer team, and its fans, do use/love red.

A local bonsai club had this beautiful display.

Turin, Italy also had a display. These photos are from the 2006 Winter Olympics held there. Notice the skirt on the woman on the left, which is in the shape of an Alpine mountain with villages.

Italian automotive art. Most people associate Italian automotive art with the likes of Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Maserati. Most South Koreans also associate Italian automotive art with South Korea's own automotive industry, as firms like Italdesign were responsible for designing the exteriors of countless South Korean cars over the years. The Italians designed the Hyundai Pony, South Korea's first homegrown car; the Hyundai Excel, the first South Korean car in the US; and the Daewoo Lanos, Nubira, and Leganza trio, Daewoo's failed attempt to carve a slice out of the US market.

Prague sent these beautiful glasses. Warnings were everywhere around this gallery; these pieces are fragile, and if you break any, you must buy them.

I have tons more pictures, but I won't share them here, as they are not as relevant at this blog.