Hello Vincent Van Gogh? It is an honour to meet you.

Who are you?

My name is Minwook An. I am the CEO of an artistic company called ars. Please call me Minuk.

What is a CEO? I do not know what you mean by CEO. What do you do?

Do you trade or grow crops?

I am an artist, running an art company.

Are you an artist? How come I have never heard of your name or your company before..

Are you a painter?

I used to paint but not so much now.

What? What do you mean by you used to paint?

Well...that is not important. The reason I wanted to see you in person is to ask for your permission to use one of your paintings as an inspiration to my work. I would like to build a cafe called Cafe Terrace at Night, based on your painting.

Minuk! It is my work and no one has ever copied my work. If I were you, I would not do that. Why would you copy my painting?

Stupid! How can you call yourself an artist when you copy other artist's work?

Do you not have your own ideas? It is as bad as stealing!

It is going to take too long to explain everything to you right now. But what I can tell you is that you are one of the greatest artists in western art history and it will be a significant opportunity to work with you. You were my inspiration to become an artist and role model since I was little. 

Let me explain the hidden meaning behind my work. I have been planning to build an artistic cafe in co-operation with other artists, but they seemed to be too busy with their own work.

So... I was searching for a retired artist who has time to work with me and I found you! At Chelsea college of art and design, there is a perfect spot for me to build a cafe.

I want to bring your painting into the real world, just like you  put the cafe you loved into your own painting. It will base on your painting, but my canvas will be the nature and I just have to add few structures to it. Everything else will all be there, sky, breeze and stars, just like your work but in a bigger frame.

Mmm..That does sound interesting. May I have a look at your work before we carry on this conversation?

Of course you can. This way please.

A Conversation with Vincent Van Gogh at ars in 2012

《교환er》은 보이지 않는 차이와 그 안의 움직임을 바라보는 프로젝트로 우리가 익숙하게 받아들이는 가치 기준에 질문을 던지는 작업입니다.

‘지금 내가 마시는 이 캔 음료는 왜 800원일까?’라는 단순한 질문에서 출발한 이 프로젝트는, 상품의 가격이 어떻게 형성되는지를 다시 들여다보게 만들었습니다. 원재료의 생산과 가공, 유통과 판매에 이르기까지의 객관적인 비용뿐 아니라, 수요와 공급이라는 경제 논리에 더해, 광고를 통해 덧입혀지는 이미지와 상징 자본이 가격에 결정적인 영향을 미친다는 점에 주목하게 되었습니다.

특히 음료 광고에서 반복적으로 사용되는 단순하고 청량한 이미지는, 제품을 젊고 감각적인 소비로 포장하며 고급화 전략의 도구로 작동합니다. 이처럼 시장에서 통용되는 가치는 물리적인 구성 요소만이 아니라, 문화적 취향과 이미지 소비에 의해 끊임없이 조정되고 있다는 사실은, ‘비싼 것’과 ‘싼 것’을 나누는 기준 자체에 의문을 던지게 했습니다.

한국 사회가 서구 이미지를 선호하는 이유에 대한 질문은 서구 취향의 근원을 탐색하는 리서치로 이어졌고, 유럽의 한 국가인 영국에서 언어, 소리, 사고방식의 차이를 물물교환을 통해 감각적으로 경험하게 되었습니다. 특히 한국에서 건네받은 물건이 낯선 타국의 누군가에게 교환된다는 사실은, 참여자들에게 단순한 기증 이상의 의미를 부여하며, 자신의 물건이 다른 문화권에서 어떻게 받아들여질지에 대한 상상과 적극적인 관여를 이끌어냈습니다.

 

2. Why 교환(Exchange)ER?

a street stall in China in 2008

 

 

This project started off with a simple question. Why a can of soft drink I drink now is 800 Korean Won? I thought that it was too expensive and started to doubt whether the prices of all the goods selling in the market were fairly appropriated. So, I divided some of them into two categories of ‘expensive’ and ‘cheap’. A visual medium that I used for the purpose is advertisement that people are most familiar with. In general, to emphasize exclusivity and youth, modern and simple western images are often used in ads.

 

Moreover,I was intensely curious about the reason why Koreans like western images. For the full-scale access to the theme of ‘Western taste’ Koreans are crazy about, I decided to go to the UK which forms an important part of Western culture. Cultural difference I found while studying English to understand the British culture drew my attention. The first thing I came to take an interest in was sound. 

 

According to a friend of mine who studies music, Westerners speak through nasal cavity. Based on this information, I observed native speakers of English with attention and felt that their faces were vibrating when speaking. It is said that except for few vowels almost all Korean consonant sounds are not found in English. Like that we Koreans are not familiar with English articles, native speakers of English are not familiar with the use of Korean consonant ‘o’ before a vowel, which is an unvoiced sound. However, such difference between Korean and English is also often found in pairs of Korean and other languages.

 

If language affects thought, there will be a big difference in the way of thinking between people whose native languages are different from each other. The book ‘The Geography of Thought’ by Richard Nisbet scientifically explains the linguistic difference between Asians who focus on vowels and Westerners who emphasize nouns. According to him, such difference affects their views of the world beyond the simple linguistic difference.

 

Differences of thought between people, different values between items, and the change of values by the intervention of national images have been linked with one another and created one big thought. I felt that I could visualize such difference through the process of talking with people and carrying out cultural exchange with them. If there is modern art in the process of visualizing invisible things, before talking about the rights and wrongs of the process, I think that when it makes us take a look at our life, it can be accepted as art. This is the reason why Ars Project sets about the project ‘교환(Exchange)ER’. In the preparation of it, 

 

what I came to know was that luckily the UK is a multiracial country.

 

 

Collected items in Korea

Bartered items in the UK