A Visit to Gyeonggi Arts Center

Translated from the Korean original.

It has been so cold lately that going out feels daunting. Still, there was an important briefing session here at the Gyeonggi Arts Center convention hall, so I went along

A long, long time ago~~ 20 years ago I did a fair amount of cultural and artistic activity here, and the memories came flooding back.

The Suwon Outdoor Music Hall is across from here, so I saw a Lee Eun-mi concert and the opera Carmen too…

Thinking back now, Suwon seems to have hosted a great deal of culture and performance. Thanks to that I got to enjoy ballet, plays, opera, concerts and recitals all around.

That is the kind of place it was, and now I have come back to it again. And for work, of all things~~~

I remember standing in a long queue over there for ticketing, haha. The memories keep welling up. I saw a Yiruma concert here too…

Maybe because I came back after 20 years, there is now a glass structure out in front. The Louvre Museum in Paris… I cannot remember its name, but

it brings that structure to mind. I have no idea what it is used for, though…

And it was so cold that day that I could not even go up close, haha. A biting wind and snow flurries on top of it, hehe

The reason I came here was exactly that briefing session. Thanks to it I even got to see the Gyeonggi Arts Center convention hall.

After the roughly two-hour briefing ended, it felt like a waste to just leave, so I had a look around the outside.

The convention hall is located in a standalone building called Doum Hall.

Back in my day? there was no such thing as Doum Hall, so it must have been built later

On the way down from the convention hall to the underground parking lot I spotted a cafe, and instrument practice rooms as well. The people walking in carrying their instruments looked so cool

that I took a photo. They were carrying instruments bigger than their own bodies… Maybe because they can do what I cannot, they looked impressive to me.

It made me want to come here to see a performance next time. A very long time ago I brought my mother here to see a Lee Mi-ja concert

as well — I remember that now…

I think it used to be called the Gyeonggi Cultural Arts Center? Even though I visited for work,

it turned out to be a place that stirred up memories, hehe

Do you all go out to see cultural performances now and then?