A journey in pursuit of modern aesthetics and the essence of art.
It had to be Germany!

Why Germany?

Park Seon-yeong, the author of this book, is a well-known cultural consumer who has consistently contributed articles on art to various trend-leading mass media outlets.
Her Instagram, which showcases her aesthetic taste and sensibility, currently has 16,000 followers, making her a so-called influencer.
If you look at her feed, you'll see her showcasing chairs and lighting in her apartment, modeling designer clothes, and even curating art exhibitions.


What makes her Instagram special is that it doesn't just follow the hottest cultural trends of the day.
Even chairs, tables, and display cases that seem familiar from somewhere else, when captured by her, appear as objects with a unique charm.
Perhaps it is because her unique delicate sensibility, which seeks out the originality of design, is added.
Among them, the point where her sensibility reaches is modernism in the early 20th century, when the concept of design was established.
The reason the author frequently travels to Germany is no different.

Since 2015, the author has traveled frequently to Germany for several years.
It was a long journey, lasting about three months each time I went.
After spending about a month in Berlin as a base camp, we headed down to Munich in southern Germany, leisurely rested by the lake, and then continued our journey westward to Cologne, Düsseldorf, and Münster.
The purpose was to see firsthand the architecture of Mies van der Rohe, the Bauhaus dormitory, the sculpture park created by British sculptor Tony Craig, and Derneburg Castle, where Georg Baselitz, a master of German modern art, once lived in seclusion.


I also frequently met and interviewed Koreans who are active in the arts in Germany.
Pianist Kim Seon-wook, architect Lee Eun-young, photographer Chun Gyeong-woo, painters San Jeong and Choi Seon-ah, and her friend Saet-byeol, who makes lighting…
The conversations I share with them contain a special quality that cannot be expressed in everyday nuances.
A journey to experience and understand a country or region through art! Her trips to Germany were always "art journeys," accompanied by art.

In 2022, I also took a long trip to Germany.
There were still people to meet, places to see, and secret places to stay for a dreamy night.
This book is filled with stories of the places, people, and objects that inspired the author's artistic journey through Germany, as well as stories that sharpened his aesthetic taste.
Why Germany? Perhaps she's traveling there to discover for herself why she loves Germany.
To get one step closer to the essence of art that has taken root in one’s own aesthetic sense… .

Contrary to our widespread prejudices, my long travels through Germany have revealed to me that there is a diverse aesthetic that cannot be defined by a single definition.
(…) This book is a compilation of my travels in Germany over the years, and deals with the spaces, people, and art that resonated with me personally.
I hope this book will be an opportunity for anyone to remove the layer of prejudice that has been attached to Germany.
--- p.6

The hanging scroll on one side of the hallway revealed a new aesthetic in the Altbau, which was built over a hundred years ago.
Perhaps because Korean elements were metaphorically embedded throughout, even the Danish cabinet in the kitchen looked like wooden furniture from the Joseon Dynasty.
--- p.11

To one side, there is a corded telephone with a twisted cord, and a mysterious chandelier hangs from the ceiling.
There's no way I can sleep in a room like this.
I spent a long night tossing and turning, wondering what this special feeling of being surrounded by old things was.
--- p.20

In fact, the scenery that this quiet street embraces is the product of all the excellent things.
If it's a morning when you can do anything, the joy of not having to do anything increases even more.
--- p.21

Late at night, I left the writer's apartment and walked alone.
The streetlights, too small and dim compared to the vast distance, the majestic silhouettes of the old East German buildings, and the secret conversations we had just had all washed over me at once.
That moment felt like a perfect piece of art.
--- p.35

The more I looked into them, and the more I remembered that they were all made in the 1920s, the more each and every one of them seemed like a surprising 'symbol of modernity'.
A thought flashed through my mind, like a sentence from a book, that the condensed prototype of what we call 'design' today began here.
--- p.42

Walking along the Spinnerei offers a bizarre visual and sensory experience.
The unreal scale of damp brick buildings steeped in time, the tough graffiti left by unknown artists, the old pipelines and circuits that seem to be sending signals somewhere… .
The melancholy of the abandoned factory landscape engulfs my whole body.
It's a kind of beauty, but also a fear.
This kind of industrial landscape, which seems to call out memories of the past, is the kind of aesthetic I love.
--- p.52

Finally, as fate would have it, on the last day of my trip, I got the lamp I had been looking for.
Dealer Martin said he was lucky to have acquired a Sarpati 566 model in such good condition.
The light that I carried on the plane, carefully wrapped in bubble wrap several times and held in my hand, still lights up the night on the small side table in our house.
--- p.59

Time passed quickly.
I have a long journey ahead of me, but this transcendent realm occupied by art continues to fascinate me and keep me going.
As I walked back through the room I had just passed, I noticed the trees outside the window and the crumbling stone tower that had not been visible before.
Feeling a strange excitement, I hugged tightly the sentence of Levinas that was rising from somewhere inside me.
“There is hospitality, there is anticipation, there is a human reception.”
--- p.111

The few days I spent with her were a time to encounter not Munich, the city of art, but the everyday Munich behind it.
Rather than wandering around wondering outside, she honestly expresses the creative desires that arise within her.
A daily routine where we willingly dedicate our precious time to maintaining small bonds with our neighbors.
My friend Sonia was living the life I considered ideal, quietly, here in Munich.
--- p.185

A unique home where all the decorations, expressions, imaginations, and wills that were swirling around in Stuck's head were realized without any difficulties.
Here, even the grand modernist doctrine of the 'house as a machine' becomes powerless.
A universe open to all possibilities, as if nothing is impossible.
Villa von Stuck, which condenses the aesthetics of the time to its fullest, seemed like an epic completed by the persistent desire of an artist.
--- p.193

A strange void fills the exhibition hall.
My eyes repeat the illusion and retreat as the brighter and darker greens overlap at regular intervals.
The four squares and four types of green appear to approach before our eyes and then recede again, becoming an infinite vortex of sensation.
As the sunlight streams in evenly through the window, the canvas begins to look like a sacred altar.
--- p.213

Many stories arise from what he left behind and what he was unable to express.
Even as complex shapes appear and disappear in my mind, his paintings that I see before my eyes are so beautiful, sensual, and instinctive.
Mache's self-portrait may be a symbol of the perfection of life and death, of dreams and compassion.
The face of the most perfect artist engraved in my mind is the reason why he keeps coming to mind.
--- p.220

April came without me even knowing it was coming.
The journey that started in winter has now continued here.
As a traveler, my concept of time is usually measured in days.
There is no time to look back on yesterday, and no time to plan for tomorrow.
Complete the 24 hours by pouring maximum energy and emotion into today's schedule.
--- p.224

As I frequently undertake long trips to Germany due to a love for Germany that has sprouted since some time ago, Cheon Gyeong-woo's thoughts on Germany have often unknowingly become seeds of inspiration for me.
Whenever I met him after several months, or even years, we would exchange stories about the work we had been doing, the little things in our daily lives, and stories of our visits to Germany.

--- p.233