Van Gogh Reborn!

309

The Final Showdown (14)

“Should we ask for his autograph?”

“He seems busy talking with Hun.”

The opening ceremony ended in a hurry.

Henry Marso and Go Hun declined the media interviews and continued their conversation.

“How do you expect me to store those huge things better? Not one, but three of them!”

“You bought land and sold it off!”

“The building hasn’t even been built yet!”

While Go Hun and Henry bickered, Go Soo Yeol, Bang Tae Ho, and Arsen Leblanc watched the situation from a distance.

Bang Tae Ho wanted to stop the two from fighting in front of , but Go Soo Yeol and Arsen had no intention of doing so.

“Shouldn’t we intervene?”

“Heh. Kids grow up by fighting, don’t they?”

It seemed difficult to persuade Go Soo Yeol, who just found them cute as his grandchildren.

Bang Tae Ho urged Arsen.

“Arsen, you shouldn’t be like that either. Think of Mr. Marso’s image.”

“It’s fine. He’s always like that. Look.”

Bang Tae Ho followed Arsen’s secretary and looked around.

The fans who surrounded Henry Marso and Go Hun didn’t show any signs of displeasure or contempt.

“So tell me. What do you want me to do?”

Go Hun, who was tired of Henry Marso’s nagging, calmed down his excitement and asked.

“What?”

“…”

“Why aren’t you talking again!”

He couldn’t say it.

He wanted to display Go Hun’s works in his own gallery, but he couldn’t tell him to do so because of his pride.

Go Hun pounded his chest.

“Tell me. What do you want? You have to talk to make me understand.”

“Stop it.”

He didn’t want to talk anymore.

“What do you mean, stop it?”

“Let’s stop!”

“Finish what you started!”

Go Hun was frustrated.

He thought they could understand each other if they talked, even if they raised their voices, but Henry Marso didn’t seem to want to.

On the other hand, Henry Marso was also frustrated.

The more they talked, the more they failed to understand each other.

They were both stubborn and couldn’t persuade each other.

He wanted to calm down his emotions and talk rationally, but Go Hun tried to solve everything right away.

“I said I don’t want to hear it!”

“Are you going to avoid me forever? We have to talk to make things work!”

Go Hun shouted as there was no progress in their conversation after 30 minutes since the opening ceremony.

He felt like they would drift apart forever if they didn’t see each other.

He had lost too many precious relationships because of his vain pride, and he didn’t want to lose this one too.

“Fine. Let’s start from the beginning.”

“What do you mean, from the beginning? We’ve been talking all this time!”

“I…”

“What!”

Henry Marso turned his head in annoyance.

“I’m sorry to interrupt. But I’m a really really big fan! Can I please have one autograph?”

“I’ve been subscribing to Marso Gallery for three years!”

Some people came over in a group.

“Are you blind? Can’t you see we’re busy!”

Henry Marso yelled and the fans laughed out loud.

“He got mad at me too!”

Henry Marso, who was fuming with anger, widened his eyes.

They seemed insane to like it when he was angry.

“Are you laughing?”

He snapped and the fans shrank back.

“We, we just. We like you so much.”

“Let’s go. We’re sorry.”

The fans bowed their heads and Henry Marso shouted again.

“Where are you going!”

“Yes?”

“Give me your autograph!”

Henri Marso snatched a paper and a pen from the person closest to him.

“Damn it. Name!”

“Christopher Allen!”

“Allen?”

“Allen.”

“Next!”

Christopher Allen took the paper with a flushed face.

It said, ‘To the damn Christopher Allen.’

“Nils Fram! Can you please write that I’m the cute Nils Fram?”

“Shut up.”

Henri Marso wrote ‘the clueless Nils Fram’ and handed it to him. Nils Fram bragged to his friends.

As one or two people succeeded in getting an autograph, the others who were watching also rushed in.

Among them were fans of Ko Hun.

“I’m watching your YouTube!”

“Thank you. But right now.”

“Picture! Can you take a picture with me?”

“Sure. But wait a minute.”

“Guys, he’s taking a picture with us!”

“Really?”

Ko Hun had to stop arguing because of the sudden crowd.

The opening day of the Münster Sculpture Project.

Henri Marso and Ko Hun, who were exhausted from signing all afternoon, lay on their chairs.

They were so drained from dealing with so many people that they had no energy to yell.

“We didn’t even get to see anything. What is this?”

“It’s your fault.”

“What did I do?”

“You caused a commotion on the street, so they came running.”

“It’s because Henri gave them autographs.”

“It’s your fault.”

“It’s your fault.”

While the two were bickering with dying voices, Bang Tae-ho and Go Soo-yeol had a conversation.

“The invisible sculpture?”

"Yes. It’s a work by Salvatore Orau, who submitted it to the Münster Sculpture Project. Haha. It was interesting."1

Bang Tae-ho showed Go Soo-yeol the work of Salvatore Orau on his smartphone.

Go Soo-yeol furrowed his brow.

“There’s nothing there.”

“Yes. He said he made it with the air and light of Münster.”

“What does that mean? Does it mean it doesn’t exist in reality?”

“Thanks to that, there’s a controversy.”

Go Soo-yeol tilted his head.

He had been in the art world for a long time and had seen many cases of giving different meanings to things.

But he found it hard to accept a sculpture without form and substance.

“What are you talking about?”

Ko Hun and Henri Marso, who had been arguing, also showed interest.

Bang Tae-ho turned his smartphone to them.

“Noi Siamo?”

“We are.”

Ko Hun read the title in Italian and Henri told him the meaning.

“…”

Henri Marso frowned as he checked the picture.

Salvatore Orau claimed that he sculpted with the sunlight, moonlight, and air of Münster, which was the most suitable sculpture for Münster, and that it was worth 100,000 euros.

Ko Hun was not convinced either, but he tried to understand Salvatore Orau somehow.

“I can sympathize with the idea.”

“Hehe. Really?”

Go Soo-yeol wondered how his grandson would accept the sculpture of a non-existent being.

“Tell your grandfather how you see it.”

“It’s an act of connecting Münster and its citizens. I think he wants to remind them of the value of the space itself called Münster.”

“Hmm. I guess you can see it that way.”

“He said so himself.”

“A damn nonsense.”

Henri Marso interrupted.

“There is no art without conception. Without a medium, only the idea remains, and that leads to a tedious explanation.”

“But it’s an interesting attempt, isn’t it?”

Henri Marso snorted.

“He’s trying to sell a piece of paper that proves nothing for 100,000 euros. An artistic attempt? You’re too naive and optimistic.”

“That’s why I’m friends with you.”

“…”

Ko Hun smiled brightly, and Henri Marso turned his head away.

“But are you going to sell this?”

“Yes. Actually, that’s why there’s more talk about it.”

Bang Taeho answered.

“The Munster Sculpture Project works are purchased by the city and permanently displayed. This one has a chance too, but 100,000 euros seems too much for me.”

Bang Taeho also had a hard time accepting .

Although it could be seen as a different attempt, as Orau claimed, it didn’t look good to him that he was trying to sell nothing but a certificate and words, as Henri Marso pointed out.

“Art is a scam.”

Gosuyeol quietly joined them, and Ko Hun and Henri Marso turned their heads.

“That’s what Baek Dongjun said.”

"Art is a scam. Art is the scam of scams, and a very high-level scam at that."2)

Bang Taeho chimed in.

“Hmm. And there was another guy who said something interesting. Stanley Cavell. He said that modern art has the possibility of fraud inherent in it.”

Ko Hun was lost in thought.

Decades ago, artists who fell into nihilism destroyed the form and put a title on a toilet.

There was a controversy, but the art world generally accepted it as art.

As time passed, the self-destructive tendency faded and the conception and conception harmonized again.

And now, ‘a sculpture of nothing’ appeared.

It was hard to judge whether it was a scam or art.

“If you only come up with original and new arguments, all the things called art are scams.”

Henri Marso concluded.

“Duchamp just followed the toilet with a name. The ones who say it’s not a scam are either the ones who benefit from the world created by the scammers, or the ones who are brainwashed.”

“That’s not an unreasonable thought.”

Gosuyeol partly agreed.

“But isn’t it always people who judge whether it’s art or not? If there are people who deny it, there will be people who accept it.”

Listening to the conversation of his friends, Ko Hun was able to sort out his thoughts a little.

What would the visitors who came to the place where nothing was exhibited think?

Could they really call it a work of art if they couldn’t get any meaning without the artist’s explanation?

If he really wanted to express the preciousness of the space of Munster and ventilate it to the citizens, he should have found another way.

However.

He didn’t admit it, but he thought he couldn’t deny it if someone accepted it as art.

“It’s hard.”

Ko Hun chuckled.

“I don’t think it’s not art because I don’t admit it. But I don’t think I can understand the people who buy it either.”

“That’s right. That’s why contemporary art is diversified.”

Ko Hun recalled what the art director said at the opening ceremony today.

He said that since unique works were loved, any child born in Munster would be loved.

“You don’t have to hate it. It’s just different.”

“No.”

Henri Marso disagreed with Ko Hun.

Not all artists were sincere about art.

Among them, there were people who really wanted to deceive others, and they were cancer cells that should be expelled from the art world.

But he didn’t hate Ko Hun’s words, who didn’t know the world.

He couldn’t hate or deny the boy who retorted that he was friends with him because he saw people too well.

1)Salvatore Garau.

An Italian artist who presented a work called in 2021.

The work was auctioned for 15,000 euros (about 20 million won in Korean currency), but it caused controversy because the sculpture did not actually exist.

Salvatore Garau claimed that he “made it with air and spirit, even though he couldn’t see it.”

2)A quote from Paik Nam-june

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