1. General information
> Title: Coffee with Sugar
> Date: June 1st 2007~ 2nd May 2008
> Venues in Korea: Café Vam(Only episode 1 Bulgaria), yri cafe, Cafe factory, Cafe VW
> Venues in Sofia: The tea house, The A:partment
> Venues in Istanbul: Akbank Art and Culture Center, Resfest-TR
> Venues in Copenhagen: The Bobble Contemporary Art, Cafe Karriere
> Co-organizer: InterSpace(Sofia), Netfilmmakers(Copenhagen), Nomad(Istanbul)
> Participating Country: Korea, Bulgaria, Denmark, Turkey
> Exhibition Schedule :

3. Introduction
Coffee ‘with’ Sugar, Be a Bitter Sweet & Intriguing Refreshment 

1. Coffee with Sugar from a Faraway Land, Bulgaria
The project ‘Coffee with Sugar’ was first started from Galia Dimitrova, a curator at Bulgarian media center, Interspace. According to Dimitrova, there are two different functions in coffee: One is to be always awake to what goes around in society and another is to add some extra flavor which spices up our lives with wit and sense of humor. This is where she got the idea of initiating the curatorial project. En route to presenting such art works, there comes a moment to focus on the synthesizing feature of coffee: That is to enjoy and recognize the function and role of coffee and sugar. In media art works, we can find them that both stimulate and lighten up our senses.

This is especially special since the media art has been widely used as an artistic channel for young artists to express their critical perspectives toward society. Particularly, Bulgaria, where CWS has originated is a nation that had experienced immense socio-political upheaval due to its ideological changes in 1990s. The shift from socialism to capitalism, represented as a flow of capital and market formation also produced massive social problem at the same time. For Bulgarian artists who went through social cataclysm, this newly emerged tool appealed much after 2000 as a method of art expression and society critique. In their works, they do not employ advanced techniques like in Korea or use some chic skills that many artists might be interested in. For that reason, to us who are already adapted to vivid, intense, and colorful images as from MTV, their works might seem a bit bland. Nevertheless, through these series of art works with unique visual orientation and witty storytelling, they provide a chance to peep into exotic regional aspects with foreign images and the language we hear beyond the video. Through this experience, we would be amused and further develop better understanding of their cultural and social setting.       

2. Artistic Playground where Art Communicates with Society
To introduce media art works from a far away country, Lab. Preparat has organized such a project as CWS to share the works with Korean audience. The project will be presented at three exciting cafes around Hongik University, where audience can naturally exposed to coffee and people, an occasion that can add up some spices to ordinary daily lives. First started with Bulgarian works, the project will be extended to cover Danish and Turkish art works. Through this unusual opportunity to share media art works with rather unfamiliar countries, CWS will serve as a meaningful step to get to understand other societies and to explore common artistic language that touches the hearts of many. 

3. Coffee with Sugar in Korea
At the time when we organized the project, I took some time thinking about the significance of introducing media art works from unfamiliar countries. Before everything, encountering with distinctive culture and art, and recognizing the differences would be an important starting point. Moreover, preparing a platform for Korean media art works to enter international arena through this screening exchange would be another meaningful step. However, it would be somewhat challenging to find such society-involving activities in Korea as in CWS.

Art does not necessarily have to reflect what goes around society. But, we Lab. Preparat believes in the dynamic of art that it will make the world to stand on the better environment. Korean society is weaved with a variety of stories due to its unusual political situation and rapidly grown economy under the catchphrase of promoting individual interests and social wealth & power. Yet, this story-provoking social setting didn’t actually lead to art works that interacts with society vigorously.

In this project, it was our keen interest to collect the society-reflecting works or those that have strong will to take an active role in society. This collection of works will provide an opportunity to look around society and raise awareness of what really goes on around us. Alongside the social aspect, the works will color our everyday lives with unique artistic features.  

4. Society from the Lens of Art, Possibility of Culture Translation
Umberto Eco once mentioned about the possibility of cultural translation, illustrating a different standard of drinking and serving coffee. Imagine a phrase, ‘He drank a cup of coffee at once and left’ For espresso which is enjoyed widely in Europe, it is possible to drink coffee straight away as described in the phrase, but, for Coffee served in a big cup, as the way in United States, it is almost impossible to do the same thing exactly. It is just too hot and too much.

Though this dissimilar manner of defining a cup of coffee, I would like to approach the value of CWS. As with different style of drinking and enjoying coffee, the stories from different countries vary significantly. However, interestingly, these dissimilar stories intrigue us. We do not and perhaps can not change the way of enjoying our coffee, however, while interacting with others, the series of action can create a global community. Tasting others’ coffee, admitting the differences, and adjusting the amount of sugar would be something that coffee and art have in common.

Yoonsun SHIN
Curator, Lab.preparat