Chapter 292:

Chapter 292:

292

Courage (2)

The news report on the corruption scandal of the Korean Art Association through the terrestrial broadcast stirred up public opinion in no time.

Choi Young-soo, the president of the Korean Art Association, also heard the news from his staff while having dinner with his younger brother and his wife.

-We have no choice but to follow. Otherwise, we can’t hold the competition. We have to make a living too.

When the news criticizing the Korean Art Association came on during the dinner, the secretary and the maid looked nervous as if sparks would fly.

Choi Young-soo took a spoonful of soup and opened his mouth.

“The northern country is good today.”

The maid smiled awkwardly and Choi Young-soo’s younger brother, Choi Man-soo, asked anxiously.

“Is this okay?”

“What do you mean?”

“What do you mean? You have to do something. Find out who said that.”

Choi Young-soo did not answer back and took another spoonful of soup. Then he gave a glance to the maid.

“The last kimchi was good.”

“Oh, yes. I’ll bring it out.”

Choi Man-soo frowned.

The association had already predetermined the winners of several competitions, and the news was reporting on it, but the president was calmly looking for kimchi. He was frustrated.

“Are you going to eat now? Even if you make a counter-statement right away, it won’t be enough.”

“Man-soo.”

Choi Young-soo looked at his brother.

He felt sorry for his brother who was still immature even after his sixties.

“You have to be calm to do big things. You can’t do anything if you waver over small things.”

“Is this a small thing?”

“It’s a trivial and common thing.”

Choi Young-soo wiped his mouth.

“The lower ones get tired too. They have a hard time, so they have to vent like that.”

Choi Young-soo thought that they had to complain.

They were human too, so they would have complaints someday. They didn’t say anything because they had some leeway, but he thought it was a matter of time.

“You have to squeeze out the pus when it forms. That’s how you prevent a serious illness.”

“What are you talking about?”

“It means you have to let them rant a little so they don’t rebel.”

Oppression was not the only solution.

Sometimes, he had to give them some breathing room to avoid trouble.

What Choi Young-soo feared the most was that the accumulated complaints would lose their way and swell up.Yôur favorite stories at novelhall.com

If they burst, he couldn’t handle it.

He had to trust the numbers of these people who would unite before he could appease them properly.

“Just wait and see.”

People would curse the association when the news came out.

They would lament the world and their powerlessness and use it as a snack for drinking. And they would live as slaves again.

It would be solved well because it was on the news.

Someone would step up.

They thought so and devoted themselves to their own lives.

They had no choice.

The world was not easy to focus on things that had nothing to do with them. The rulers did not leave the slaves alone to think differently.

In the past, there were several news reports criticizing the association for the competition-related issues, but nothing changed much.

He could cover it up in time, and there were always new news that attracted attention.

The companies that complained that the winners were predetermined could not go any further if they wanted to receive the support money.

“Secretary Kim.”

“Yes.”

“Deal with it as usual.”

“Yes. I understand.”

“Let’s eat.”

The next day.

Choi Young-soo, who got up late, unfolded the newspaper as usual.

Paris was about to greet the morning.

‘I have to do it.’

It was the first day of her serialization in the famous art magazine Bozar.

She had gained some attention for filing a complaint against Damien Carter, but she didn’t know if she could sway public opinion by publishing it in a big magazine.

She didn’t know how many people would care about the Korean Pavilion issue.

She was anxious because there was a high possibility of being ignored.

‘I need to let them know. At least to the committee members.’

Kim Ji-woo sighed softly as she repeated putting on and taking off her nails.

‘I’ll probably get a lot of hate.’

She dealt with the problem of the Korean Pavilion at the Venice Biennale abroad.

Depending on the person, they might curse her for exposing such a shameful thing.

Kim Ji-woo also hesitated several times to bring this issue abroad and deal with it, but she pushed ahead because it was not just a problem of the Korean Pavilion.

“...Sigh.”

Kim Ji-woo tried to suppress his nervousness as he prepared his next article.

Meanwhile, Ralph Lupus, who had woken up early in the morning, brewed some coffee and looked at the water of Venice, which was still dark.

He was tired from preparing for the Venice Biennale, which was half a year away, but his passion grew by the day.

As he skimmed through the major newspapers while having a simple breakfast of bread and butter, he saw Kim Ji-woo’s column.

[Venice Biennale: National Pavilions Fail to Live Up to Their Reputation]

It was a title that criticized the operation of the national pavilions at the Venice Biennale.

Although he was not in charge of the pavilions, as the director of the main exhibition, Ralph Lupus could not help but be interested.

He started to read the column and narrowed his eyes.

The national pavilions of the Venice Biennale, the festival of the world’s art lovers, boast a long history as well as their fame.

Especially, the 2030 Venice Biennale, which is approaching next year, is attracting a lot of attention as many artists are participating.

Among them, the joint exhibition of France and Korea, featuring Go Soo-yeol, Jang Mi-rae, Ko Hun, and Henri Marso, was the most talked-about.

Go Soo-yeol, who resumed his activities in South Korea last year, proved that he was still loved by achieving a record-breaking success in his European and North American tours.

Jang Mi-rae, who also planned a simultaneous exhibition around the world at the end of last year, was no different.

Ko Hun and Henri Marso, who have shown an unusual friendship and led the big and small events of the art world for the past three years, were also curious about what kind of harmony they would show in the Münster Sculpture Project and the Venice Biennale.

As a writer, I was investigating the reason why they set up a separate joint exhibition instead of using the Korean and French pavilions, and I learned why they had no choice but to do so.

As a lover of art, I could not just sit and watch.

“Hmm.”

Ralph Lupus reached for his glasses at the paragraph that said the Korean pavilion had been run according to the taste of the association chairman.

It was a statement that the chairman of the Korean Art Association had given the positions of the commissioner, the artistic director, and the artist of the Korean pavilion at the Venice Biennale in exchange for money.

What’s more, the chairman’s daughter and son-in-law took all the roles of the commissioner, the artistic director, and the artist in this biennale. Ralph Lupus could not believe it.

The Korean pavilion at the Venice Biennale was a historic space that the late painter Baek Dong-joon had obtained after a struggle.

The late Baek Dong-joon lamented, “I feel sad because there is no pavilion of my country,” and requested the establishment of the Korean pavilion every time the biennale was held.

After winning the Golden Lion Award in 1993, he thought he had gained some influence and asked the Venice Biennale Organizing Committee to “make a Korean pavilion, even if it’s a bathroom in the back,” but was rejected.

Baek Dong-joon did not give up and kept sending sketches and works of the Korean pavilion to the officials.

The organizing committee, who could no longer refuse the request of the Golden Lion Award winner, finally recognized the Korean pavilion and established it.

It was the smallest and most remote exhibition hall among the various national pavilions, but it was a precious space for Koreans.

It was unthinkable that the place that the past master had achieved with blood, sweat, and passion had been abused by those who sucked the blood of the artists.1)

Kim Ji-woo’s column was full of resentment.

It was a place for Korean artists that the master of the previous era had obtained after a struggle, even though it was a small and secluded building.

Kim Ji-woo criticized how they had run the Korean pavilion and brought up the incident that happened in 2017.

The Korean pavilion, which was established in 1995, was originally a temporary building that was supposed to be demolished in 1998, but no one knew about it until it was revealed in 2017.

If they did not get a re-permit, the Korean pavilion that the late Baek Dong-joon had established after a struggle might disappear from the Venice Biennale.

Fortunately, the government, the association, and the artists worked hard to protect it, but it was an incident that showed how careless the association had been in handling the matter.

Kim Ji-woo felt ashamed and angry as a Korean for the way the Korean pavilion was run, and demanded that the Korean Art Association wake up.

He also demanded that the organizing committee of the Venice Biennale improve the system, as this was not only the case of the Korean pavilion, but also a practice that had been going on in some other national pavilions.

His heart was sincere and earnest.

‘This can’t go on.’

Ralph Lupus called the chairman of the organizing committee.

1)The process of Baek Nam-joon establishing the Korean pavilion is true.

The fact that the Korean pavilion was unfairly run is fiction, and has nothing to do with reality.