0:00:00.201,0:00:01.893
The theme of my talk today is,

0:00:01.893,0:00:05.101
"Be an artist, right now."

0:00:05.101,0:00:08.158
Most people, when this subject is brought up,

0:00:08.158,0:00:10.784
get tense and resist it:

0:00:10.784,0:00:13.778
"Art doesn't feed me, and right now I'm busy.

0:00:13.778,0:00:16.154
I have to go to school, get a job,

0:00:16.154,0:00:18.441
send my kids to lessons ... "

0:00:18.441,0:00:23.976
You think, "I'm too busy. I don't have time for art."

0:00:23.976,0:00:27.437
There are hundreds of reasons why we can't be artists right now.

0:00:27.437,0:00:28.992
Don't they just pop into your head?

0:00:28.992,0:00:30.815
There are so many reasons why we can't be,

0:00:30.815,0:00:33.375
indeed, we're not sure why we should be.

0:00:33.375,0:00:35.068
We don't know why we should be artists,

0:00:35.068,0:00:38.971
but we have many reasons why we can't be.

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Why do people instantly resist the idea of associating themselves with art?

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Perhaps you think art is for the greatly gifted

0:00:47.214,0:00:52.266
or for the thoroughly and professionally trained.

0:00:52.266,0:00:56.609
And some of you may think you've strayed too far from art.

0:00:56.609,0:01:01.227
Well you might have, but I don't think so.

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This is the theme of my talk today.

0:01:03.696,0:01:05.498
We are all born artists.

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If you have kids, you know what I mean.

0:01:08.542,0:01:13.427
Almost everything kids do is art.

0:01:13.427,0:01:16.005
They draw with crayons on the wall.

0:01:16.005,0:01:19.157
They dance to Son Dam Bi's dance on TV,

0:01:19.157,0:01:23.015
but you can't even call it Son Dam Bi's dance -- it becomes the kids' own dance.

0:01:23.015,0:01:28.301
So they dance a strange dance and inflict their singing on everyone.

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Perhaps their art is something only their parents can bear,

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and because they practice such art all day long,

0:01:37.472,0:01:40.751
people honestly get a little tired around kids.

0:01:40.751,0:01:43.906
Kids will sometimes perform monodramas --

0:01:43.906,0:01:47.452
playing house is indeed a monodrama or a play.

0:01:47.452,0:01:50.131
And some kids, when they get a bit older,

0:01:50.131,0:01:52.151
start to lie.

0:01:52.151,0:01:57.242
Usually parents remember the very first time their kid lies.

0:01:57.242,0:01:58.587
They're shocked.

0:01:58.587,0:02:02.155
"Now you're showing your true colors," Mom says. She thinks, "Why does he take after his dad?"

0:02:02.155,0:02:05.361
She questions him, "What kind of a person are you going to be?"

0:02:05.361,0:02:06.932
But you shouldn't worry.

0:02:06.932,0:02:13.152
The moment kids start to lie is the moment storytelling begins.

0:02:13.152,0:02:15.340
They are talking about things they didn't see.

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It's amazing. It's a wonderful moment.

0:02:17.131,0:02:19.198
Parents should celebrate.

0:02:19.198,0:02:23.355
"Hurray! My boy finally started to lie!"

0:02:23.355,0:02:25.584
All right! It calls for celebration.

0:02:25.584,0:02:28.973
For example, a kid says, "Mom, guess what? I met an alien on my way home."

0:02:28.973,0:02:33.424
Then a typical mom responds, "Stop that nonsense."

0:02:33.424,0:02:37.040
Now, an ideal parent is someone who responds like this:

0:02:37.040,0:02:40.112
"Really? An alien, huh? What did it look like? Did it say anything?

0:02:40.112,0:02:41.816
Where did you meet it?" "Um, in front of the supermarket."

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When you have a conversation like this,

0:02:44.138,0:02:50.513
the kid has to come up with the next thing to say to be responsible for what he started.

0:02:50.513,0:02:52.677
Soon, a story develops.

0:02:52.677,0:02:57.154
Of course this is an infantile story,

0:02:57.154,0:03:00.970
but thinking up one sentence after the next

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is the same thing a professional writer like me does.

0:03:05.038,0:03:07.417
In essence, they are not different.

0:03:07.417,0:03:10.103
Roland Barthes once said of Flaubert's novels,

0:03:10.103,0:03:12.709
"Flaubert did not write a novel.

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He merely connected one sentence after another.

0:03:15.714,0:03:20.441
The eros between sentences, that is the essence of Flaubert's novel."

0:03:20.441,0:03:23.224
That's right -- a novel, basically, is writing one sentence,

0:03:23.224,0:03:26.683
then, without violating the scope of the first one,

0:03:26.683,0:03:28.388
writing the next sentence.

0:03:28.388,0:03:29.897
And you continue to make connections.

0:03:29.897,0:03:31.963
Take a look at this sentence:

0:03:31.963,0:03:34.430
"One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in his bed he had been changed into a monstrous verminous bug."

0:03:34.430,0:03:36.876
Yes, it's the first sentence of Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis."

0:03:36.876,0:03:40.044
Writing such an unjustifiable sentence

0:03:40.044,0:03:42.492
and continuing in order to justify it,

0:03:42.492,0:03:46.921
Kafka's work became the masterpiece of contemporary literature.

0:03:46.921,0:03:49.670
Kafka did not show his work to his father.

0:03:49.670,0:03:51.994
He was not on good terms with his father.

0:03:51.994,0:03:55.790
On his own, he wrote these sentences.

0:03:55.790,0:03:59.053
Had he shown his father, "My boy has finally lost it," he would've thought.

0:03:59.053,0:04:00.965
And that's right. Art is about going a little nuts

0:04:00.965,0:04:03.212
and justifying the next sentence,

0:04:03.212,0:04:06.473
which is not much different from what a kid does.

0:04:06.473,0:04:08.004
A kid who has just started to lie

0:04:08.004,0:04:11.130
is taking the first step as a storyteller.

0:04:11.130,0:04:13.691
Kids do art.

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They don't get tired and they have fun doing it.

0:04:15.116,0:04:16.877
I was in Jeju Island a few days ago.

0:04:16.877,0:04:21.989
When kids are on the beach, most of them love playing in the water.

0:04:21.989,0:04:24.896
But some of them spend a lot of time in the sand,

0:04:24.896,0:04:27.140
making mountains and seas -- well, not seas,

0:04:27.140,0:04:31.087
but different things -- people and dogs, etc.

0:04:31.087,0:04:32.500
But parents tell them,

0:04:32.500,0:04:34.263
"It will all be washed away by the waves."

0:04:34.263,0:04:36.085
In other words, it's useless.

0:04:36.085,0:04:37.229
There's no need.

0:04:37.229,0:04:39.095
But kids don't mind.

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They have fun in the moment

0:04:40.266,0:04:42.432
and they keep playing in the sand.

0:04:42.432,0:04:44.698
Kids don't do it because someone told them to.

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They aren't told by their boss

0:04:46.294,0:04:49.219
or anyone, they just do it.

0:04:49.219,0:04:54.615
When you were little, I bet you spent time enjoying the pleasure of primitive art.

0:04:54.615,0:04:58.977
When I ask my students to write about their happiest moment,

0:04:58.977,0:05:04.901
many write about an early artistic experience they had as a kid.

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Learning to play piano for the first time and playing four hands with a friend,

0:05:07.656,0:05:12.672
or performing a ridiculous skit with friends looking like idiots -- things like that.

0:05:12.672,0:05:16.023
Or the moment you developed the first film you shot with an old camera.

0:05:16.023,0:05:18.346
They talk about these kinds of experiences.

0:05:18.346,0:05:20.611
You must have had such a moment.

0:05:20.611,0:05:22.544
In that moment, art makes you happy

0:05:22.544,0:05:24.221
because it's not work.

0:05:24.221,0:05:26.754
Work doesn't make you happy, does it? Mostly it's tough.

0:05:26.754,0:05:29.855
The French writer Michel Tournier has a famous saying.

0:05:29.855,0:05:31.545
It's a bit mischievous, actually.

0:05:31.545,0:05:36.517
"Work is against human nature. The proof is that it makes us tired."

0:05:36.517,0:05:38.002
Right? Why would work tire us if it's in our nature?

0:05:38.002,0:05:39.663
Playing doesn't tire us.

0:05:39.663,0:05:41.098
We can play all night long.

0:05:41.098,0:05:43.531
If we work overnight, we should be paid for overtime.

0:05:43.531,0:05:46.815
Why? Because it's tiring and we feel fatigue.

0:05:46.815,0:05:51.497
But kids, usually they do art for fun. It's playing.

0:05:51.497,0:05:54.231
They don't draw to sell the work to a client

0:05:54.231,0:05:57.256
or play the piano to earn money for the family.

0:05:57.256,0:06:00.032
Of course, there were kids who had to.

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You know this gentleman, right?

0:06:01.334,0:06:05.420
He had to tour around Europe to support his family --

0:06:05.420,0:06:07.310
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart --

0:06:07.310,0:06:10.273
but that was centuries ago, so we can make him an exception.

0:06:10.273,0:06:14.138
Unfortunately, at some point our art -- such a joyful pastime -- ends.

0:06:14.138,0:06:17.528
Kids have to go to lessons, to school, do homework

0:06:17.528,0:06:21.046
and of course they take piano or ballet lessons,

0:06:21.046,0:06:22.815
but they aren't fun anymore.

0:06:22.815,0:06:26.147
You're told to do it and there's competition. How can it be fun?

0:06:26.147,0:06:31.739
If you're in elementary school and you still draw on the wall,

0:06:31.739,0:06:35.654
you'll surely get in trouble with your mom.

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Besides,

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if you continue to act like an artist as you get older,

0:06:42.101,0:06:45.769
you'll increasingly feel pressure --

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people will question your actions and ask you to act properly.

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Here's my story: I was an eighth grader and I entered a drawing contest at school in Gyeongbokgung.

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I was trying my best, and my teacher came around

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and asked me, "What are you doing?"

0:07:04.506,0:07:06.320
"I'm drawing diligently," I said.

0:07:06.320,0:07:08.223
"Why are you using only black?"

0:07:08.223,0:07:10.603
Indeed, I was eagerly coloring the sketchbook in black.

0:07:10.603,0:07:13.672
And I explained,

0:07:13.672,0:07:16.919
"It's a dark night and a crow is perching on a branch."

0:07:16.919,0:07:17.917
Then my teacher said,

0:07:17.917,0:07:23.239
"Really? Well, Young-ha, you may not be good at drawing but you have a talent for storytelling."

0:07:23.239,0:07:25.974
Or so I wished.

0:07:25.974,0:07:28.742
"Now you'll get it, you rascal!" was the response. (Laughter)

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"You'll get it!" he said.

0:07:30.346,0:07:33.028
You were supposed to draw the palace, the Gyeonghoeru, etc.,

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but I was coloring everything in black,

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so he dragged me out of the group.

0:07:37.147,0:07:39.167
There were a lot of girls there as well,

0:07:39.167,0:07:40.718
so I was utterly mortified.

0:07:40.718,0:07:45.170
None of my explanations or excuses were heard,

0:07:45.170,0:07:48.383
and I really got it big time.

0:07:48.383,0:07:52.901
If he was an ideal teacher, he would have responded like I said before,

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"Young-ha may not have a talent for drawing,

0:07:55.214,0:07:58.589
but he has a gift for making up stories," and he would have encouraged me.

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But such a teacher is seldom found.

0:08:02.041,0:08:05.004
Later, I grew up and went to Europe's galleries --

0:08:05.004,0:08:06.905
I was a university student -- and I thought this was really unfair.

0:08:06.905,0:08:12.303
Look what I found. (Laughter)

0:08:12.303,0:08:16.628
Works like this were hung in Basel while I was punished

0:08:16.628,0:08:22.021
and stood in front of the palace with my drawing in my mouth.

0:08:22.021,0:08:25.027
Look at this. Doesn't it look just like wallpaper?

0:08:25.027,0:08:26.943
Contemporary art, I later discovered, isn't explained by a lame story like mine.

0:08:26.943,0:08:30.888
No crows are brought up.

0:08:30.888,0:08:34.221
Most of the works have no title, Untitled.

0:08:34.221,0:08:37.322
Anyways, contemporary art in the 20th century

0:08:37.322,0:08:42.691
is about doing something weird and filling the void with explanation and interpretation --

0:08:42.691,0:08:44.170
essentially the same as I did.

0:08:44.170,0:08:46.918
Of course, my work was very amateur,

0:08:46.918,0:08:50.207
but let's turn to more famous examples.

0:08:50.207,0:08:52.808
This is Picasso's.

0:08:52.808,0:08:58.609
He stuck handlebars into a bike seat and called it "Bull's Head." Sounds convincing, right?

0:08:58.609,0:09:03.253
Next, a urinal was placed on its side and called "Fountain".

0:09:03.253,0:09:04.847
That was Duchamp.

0:09:04.847,0:09:09.297
So filling the gap between explanation and a weird act with stories --

0:09:09.297,0:09:13.424
that's indeed what contemporary art is all about.

0:09:13.424,0:09:14.812
Picasso even made the statement,

0:09:14.812,0:09:18.989
"I draw not what I see but what I think."

0:09:18.989,0:09:21.506
Yes, it means I didn't have to draw Gyeonghoeru.

0:09:21.506,0:09:25.577
I wish I knew what Picasso said back then. I could have argued better with my teacher.

0:09:25.577,0:09:29.379
Unfortunately, the little artists within us

0:09:29.379,0:09:34.866
are choked to death before we get to fight against the oppressors of art.

0:09:34.866,0:09:36.471
They get locked in.

0:09:36.471,0:09:37.554
That's our tragedy.

0:09:37.554,0:09:42.814
So what happens when little artists get locked in, banished or even killed?

0:09:42.814,0:09:44.197
Our artistic desire doesn't go away.

0:09:44.197,0:09:47.294
We want to express, to reveal ourselves,

0:09:47.294,0:09:52.532
but with the artist dead, the artistic desire reveals itself in dark form.

0:09:52.532,0:09:55.499
In karaoke bars, there are always people who sing

0:09:55.499,0:09:58.041
"She's Gone" or "Hotel California,"

0:09:58.041,0:10:00.361
miming the guitar riffs.

0:10:00.361,0:10:02.603
Usually they sound awful. Awful indeed.

0:10:02.603,0:10:05.082
Some people turn into rockers like this.

0:10:05.082,0:10:07.155
Or some people dance in clubs.

0:10:07.155,0:10:10.557
People who would have enjoyed telling stories

0:10:10.557,0:10:13.567
end up trolling on the Internet all night long.

0:10:13.567,0:10:16.962
That's how a writing talent reveals itself on the dark side.

0:10:16.962,0:10:20.915
Sometimes we see dads get more excited than their kids

0:10:20.915,0:10:23.900
playing with Legos or putting together plastic robots.

0:10:23.900,0:10:25.633
They go, "Don't touch it. Daddy will do it for you."

0:10:25.633,0:10:27.268
The kid has already lost interest and is doing something else,

0:10:27.268,0:10:31.277
but the dad alone builds castles.

0:10:31.277,0:10:35.755
This shows the artistic impulses inside us are suppressed, not gone.

0:10:35.755,0:10:39.547
But they can often reveal themselves negatively, in the form of jealousy.

0:10:39.547,0:10:44.841
You know the song "I would love to be on TV"? Why would we love it?

0:10:44.841,0:10:48.669
TV is full of people who do what we wished to do,

0:10:48.669,0:10:50.609
but never got to.

0:10:50.609,0:10:56.738
They dance, they act -- and the more they do, they are praised.

0:10:56.738,0:10:59.888
So we start to envy them.

0:10:59.888,0:11:03.982
We become dictators with a remote and start to criticize the people on TV.

0:11:03.982,0:11:09.835
"He just can't act." "You call that singing? She can't hit the notes."

0:11:09.835,0:11:12.125
We easily say these sorts of things.

0:11:12.125,0:11:15.068
We get jealous, not because we're evil,

0:11:15.068,0:11:19.605
but because we have little artists pent up inside us.

0:11:19.605,0:11:23.191
That's what I think.

0:11:23.191,0:11:25.029
What should we do then?

0:11:25.029,0:11:25.806
Yes, that's right.

0:11:25.806,0:11:29.000
Right now, we need to start our own art.

0:11:29.000,0:11:30.009
Right this minute, we can turn off TV,

0:11:30.009,0:11:32.458
log off the Internet,

0:11:32.458,0:11:35.158
get up and start to do something.

0:11:35.158,0:11:36.893
Where I teach students in drama school,

0:11:36.893,0:11:39.627
there's a course called Dramatics.

0:11:39.627,0:11:43.817
In this course, all students must put on a play.

0:11:43.817,0:11:47.929
However, acting majors are not supposed to act.

0:11:47.929,0:11:49.949
They can write the play, for example,

0:11:49.949,0:11:52.673
and the writers may work on stage art.

0:11:52.673,0:11:54.969
Likewise, stage art majors may become actors, and in this way you put on a show.

0:11:54.984,0:11:58.732
Students at first wonder whether they can actually do it,

0:11:58.732,0:12:03.295
but later they have so much fun. I rarely see anyone who is miserable doing a play.

0:12:03.295,0:12:07.457
In school, the military or even in a mental institution, once you make people do it, they enjoy it.

0:12:07.457,0:12:12.353
I saw this happen in the army -- many people had fun doing plays.

0:12:12.353,0:12:15.285
I have another experience:

0:12:15.285,0:12:18.919
In my writing class, I give students a special assignment.

0:12:18.919,0:12:24.819
I have students like you in the class -- many who don't major in writing.

0:12:24.819,0:12:29.396
Some major in art or music and think they can't write.

0:12:29.396,0:12:33.123
So I give them blank sheets of paper and a theme.

0:12:33.123,0:12:34.737
It can be a simple theme:

0:12:34.737,0:12:37.251
Write about the most unfortunate experience in your childhood.

0:12:37.251,0:12:41.164
There's one condition: You must write like crazy. Like crazy!

0:12:41.164,0:12:43.897
I walk around and encourage them,

0:12:43.897,0:12:47.641
"Come on, come on!" They have to write like crazy for an hour or two.

0:12:47.641,0:12:50.849
They only get to think for the first five minutes.

0:12:50.849,0:12:54.071
The reason I make them write like crazy is because

0:12:54.071,0:12:56.829
when you write slowly and lots of thoughts cross your mind,

0:12:56.829,0:12:59.276
the artistic devil creeps in.

0:12:59.276,0:13:03.308
This devil will tell you hundreds of reasons

0:13:03.308,0:13:06.238
why you can't write:

0:13:06.238,0:13:09.073
"People will laugh at you. This is not good writing!

0:13:09.073,0:13:10.623
What kind of sentence is this? Look at your handwriting!"

0:13:10.623,0:13:12.200
It will say a lot of things.

0:13:12.200,0:13:14.704
You have to run fast so the devil can't catch up.

0:13:14.704,0:13:18.776
The really good writing I've seen in my class

0:13:18.776,0:13:21.449
was not from the assignments with a long deadline,

0:13:21.449,0:13:24.933
but from the 40- to 60-minute crazy writing students did

0:13:24.933,0:13:28.335
in front of me with a pencil.

0:13:28.335,0:13:30.174
The students go into a kind of trance.

0:13:30.174,0:13:34.636
After 30 or 40 minutes, they write without knowing what they're writing.

0:13:34.636,0:13:37.601
And in this moment, the nagging devil disappears.

0:13:37.601,0:13:39.310
So I can say this:

0:13:39.310,0:13:43.325
It's not the hundreds of reasons why one can't be an artist,

0:13:43.325,0:13:47.575
but rather, the one reason one must be that makes us artists.

0:13:47.575,0:13:49.284
Why we cannot be something is not important.

0:13:49.284,0:13:52.434
Most artists became artists because of the one reason.

0:13:52.434,0:13:56.104
When we put the devil in our heart to sleep and start our own art,

0:13:56.104,0:13:58.438
enemies appear on the outside.

0:13:58.438,0:14:01.294
Mostly, they have the faces of our parents. (Laughter)

0:14:01.294,0:14:04.395
Sometimes they look like our spouses,

0:14:04.395,0:14:06.163
but they are not your parents or spouses.

0:14:06.163,0:14:09.057
They are devils. Devils.

0:14:09.057,0:14:11.001
They came to Earth briefly transformed

0:14:11.001,0:14:14.947
to stop you from being artistic, from becoming artists.

0:14:14.947,0:14:16.869
And they have a magic question.

0:14:16.869,0:14:23.027
When we say, "I think I'll try acting. There's a drama school in the community center," or

0:14:23.027,0:14:27.504
"I'd like to learn Italian songs," they ask, "Oh, yeah? A play? What for?"

0:14:27.504,0:14:31.166
The magic question is, "What for?"

0:14:31.166,0:14:34.878
But art is not for anything.

0:14:34.878,0:14:37.132
Art is the ultimate goal.

0:14:37.132,0:14:41.272
It saves our souls and makes us live happily.

0:14:41.272,0:14:46.778
It helps us express ourselves and be happy without the help of alcohol or drugs.

0:14:46.778,0:14:51.103
So in response to such a pragmatic question,

0:14:51.118,0:14:53.537
we need to be bold.

0:14:53.537,0:14:57.981
"Well, just for the fun of it. Sorry for having fun without you,"

0:14:57.981,0:15:02.006
is what you should say. "I'll just go ahead and do it anyway."

0:15:02.006,0:15:07.106
The ideal future I imagine is where we all have multiple identities,

0:15:07.106,0:15:10.887
at least one of which is an artist.

0:15:10.887,0:15:14.056
Once I was in New York and got in a cab. I took the backseat,

0:15:14.056,0:15:18.213
and in front of me I saw something related to a play.

0:15:18.213,0:15:19.350
So I asked the driver, "What is this?"

0:15:19.350,0:15:23.395
He said it was his profile. "Then what are you?" I asked. "An actor," he said.

0:15:23.395,0:15:26.818
He was a cabby and an actor. I asked, "What roles do you usually play?"

0:15:26.818,0:15:28.844
He proudly said he played King Lear.

0:15:28.844,0:15:30.289
King Lear.

0:15:30.289,0:15:31.915
"Who is it that can tell me who I am?" -- a great line from King Lear.

0:15:31.915,0:15:35.306
That's the world I dream of.

0:15:35.306,0:15:39.241
Someone is a golfer by day and writer by night.

0:15:39.241,0:15:41.760
Or a cabby and an actor, a banker and a painter,

0:15:41.760,0:15:47.336
secretly or publicly performing their own arts.

0:15:47.336,0:15:52.207
In 1990, Martha Graham, the legend of modern dance, came to Korea.

0:15:52.207,0:15:57.963
The great artist, then in her 90s, arrived at Gimpo Airport

0:15:57.979,0:16:01.044
and a reporter asked her a typical question:

0:16:01.044,0:16:03.651
"What do you have to do to become a great dancer?

0:16:03.651,0:16:06.231
Any advice for aspiring Korean dancers?"

0:16:06.231,0:16:11.226
Now, she was the master. This photo was taken in 1948 and she was already a celebrated artist.

0:16:11.226,0:16:13.417
In 1990, she was asked this question.

0:16:13.417,0:16:16.101
And here's what she answered:

0:16:16.101,0:16:20.018
"Just do it."

0:16:20.018,0:16:21.536
Wow. I was touched.

0:16:21.536,0:16:25.628
Only those three words and she left the airport. That's it.

0:16:25.628,0:16:28.859
So what should we do now?

0:16:28.859,0:16:32.585
Let's be artists, right now. Right away. How?

0:16:32.585,0:16:33.577
Just do it!

0:16:33.577,0:16:35.191
Thank you.

0:16:35.191,0:16:36.995
(Applause)