A Korean notebook

All texts were found on the cover pages of Korean notepads and exercise books – It is not hard to learn more. What is hard is to unlearn when you discover yourself wrong. –

The book contains two narrative layers, a visual and a textual one. They blend to a photographic journey through Seoul’s business and shopping districts as well as through contemporary ethics of achievement and success.

"I took all photographs in April and May 2015 in Seoul while being at an artist residency. Apart from strolling through the city’s streets I was also very interested in looking at Korean products in shops and malls. In doing so I soon came across some notebooks and memo pads with strange sentences on top of their cover pages: philosophical thoughts, obviously influenced by Confucianism, talking about “studying hard”, “success” and “suffering”, and written in a sometimes incorrect and funny English. Oscillating between stimulation and reassurance, these veritable “truisms” hint at the pressure to perform and to achieve that may be put upon its potential readers “in private life and official time”, as one sentence has it. Philosopher Byung-Chul Han describes his homeland – which is known for being a tiger economy, a turbo-capitalist and highly technophilic country – as an example of a “fatigue society” in terminal stage. It is a characteristic of the fatigue society that its members would never ever admit being tired or nearly burnt-out. When asked “How are you?” the performance-oriented subject answers “Very busy!”."

Diana Artus, 2015

Language: English