A South Korean filmmaker and six kids give us the ground realities

KATHMANDU:

It was one of the most crowded exhibitions that one had visited with unruly visitors and strict volunteers (most of them school children), who were adamant that we follow their traffic directions at the venue.

Titled ‘How are you, Nepal?’, this two-day photo exhibition was the visualisation of a South Korean documentary filmmaker, who fell in love with Nepal while shooting a documentary here last year. After completing his work, he returned and started this project with the children from the ‘Children’s Club’ at Child and Woman Development Centre (CWDC), Patan.

Jong Gook Lee, whose adopted Nepali name is Gyan Bahadur, wanted to do something with the children and since photography, as he desicribes, is one of the forms of art, he wanted to make the children “aware of the aesthetics of photography”.

The exhibition was basically divided into two broad sections — one dealing with Lee’s perceptions, his idea of Nepal, basically Patan, and the other was dedicated to the works of six of his students aged between 12-14 years.

And what you were made to walk through was the reality of our Capital. The exhibition underscored very strongly that Nepal is not only about the beautiful mountains, the majestic Himalayas, the ancient temples, but that it is also about the huge piles of rubbish, rain flooded roads, mangy dogs, posters, demonstrations among other things.

Lee adds that a person asked him why only the negative aspects of the city? “But that is also a part of our life in the City. That is what we live with every day,” is his answer.

The children who either want to become a pilot, an actor, a famous Nepali dancer, a computer engineer, have captured the city scenes in such a way that one involutarily says, “Hey! I’ve seen this woman” or “We ate at this roadside stall just last weekend.”

Why ‘How are you, Nepal?’ and Lee says, “I wanted to name it ‘Good Morning Nepal’ but ‘How are you, Nepal?’ is much more inclusive.”