After living in one place for so long it is easy to fall
into a comfortable daily, weekly and monthly groove that at times seems hard to
break. Even living in the most seemingly mundane places however, can still
offer unique opportunities to be taken advantage of. Such was the case this
past weekend in Daegu, South Korea.
Occasionally some obscure attraction or event will come to
town and break up the typical flow of weekend life here in Daegu. In this case
it was the International Body Painting Festival. With no idea what it was all
about, we decided to divert our weekend routine from downtown to Duryu Park.
Once there and with a cold beer in hand we began to investigate
the fair ground. Nothing could have
prepared me for the spectacle I was about to see. Tents full of artists painting their nearly
nude canvas’s in the most vibrant and intricate designs I have ever seen on any
work of art before. Crowds of photographers with larger than life camera lenses
were snapping photos of the naked bodies being adorned with the creative twists
of the artists; representing South Korea, China, Japan, Germany, Ukraine,
Bulgaria the USA!
As this was occurring on stage there were graffiti contests as well as costume
contests on stage where models became lost in the lavish and exotic body paint, dresses,
and head wear. Some of them were a bit creepy with their long finger nails
reaching out for you, almost like drag queens. The entire event seemed bizarre as
it was being held in South Korea, a land of conservancy where typically showing
even a shoulder is deemed offensive.
The event served as the perfect meeting ground for my friends to drink in the sun and have a worldly experience in our cities own back yard. We were among the first to return the following day to do it all over again!
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