When the appointment of the special cultural advisor to the president was ridiculed as “the return of the old man,” Yoo In-chon snorted. “Old Man? You still have many dreams and full of energy, right?” After retiring as minister, he first obtained an excavator’s license. He taught theater to juvenile detention children. Last fall, I cycled 2000 km in Europe by bicycle. As soon as he returned, he rushed to his magnum opus ‘Faust’. 72-year-old Yoo In-chon, who lives with Don Quixote in her heart, said, “The entire cultural industry, which is biased toward outdated ideologies, needs to be reformed.”
I blacklist aid?
-The progressive camp is tied up with Lee Dong-gwan, chairman of the Korea Communications Commission, and is called a ‘technician of suppression in the media and culture world’.
“They haven’t changed. Right after I took office as the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, I went to the Dong-A Marathon event, and a progressive press wrote that I was standing like an occupying army. Even though I only went to the Opening Ceremony as an aficionado who ran every marathon before I was a minister. Also, when I returned to the stage with ‘Hamlet’, a play for the 100th anniversary of Lee Hae-rang’s birthday after the minister finished, he criticized the line ‘This twisted and twisted world’ and made a twisted world himself and made a line like that (laughs). It’s so dark how I can have a conversation with these people.”
-Did you oppress progressive artists during your time as minister?
“If I had suppressed them, would I have been able to survive in our cultural and artistic world? I am a person who became a minister to improve the barren art environment and revive the local culture.”
– After taking office, you were criticized for kicking out the chiefs.
“When the mayor of Seoul changed from Lee Myung-bak to Oh Se-hoon, I was the representative of the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture. Even the same Conservatives appreciated the idea that a new mayor would have to work with new people. Even when I became a minister, I said it lightly in that context. Even if there were more heads of agencies with different ideas from the new government, there wouldn’t be any. But the next day, it appeared in the newspaper with the headline, ‘Retire from the former head of the government agency.’”
-It is said that the blacklist started with Minister Yoo In-chon.
“I just insist on saying there is no evidence (laughs). I would like to believe that I wish someone would do some research. When I was minister, there were no exclusion lists or preferential documents. I also did not receive any preferential treatment. During the hearing, the Democratic Party demanded that the Korea Culture and Arts Promotion Agency be submitted until 2008 from the establishment of the Culture and Arts Agency, but there was none. Rather, when I returned to the theater world after retirement, the staff who worked with me did not receive any support. Isn’t that a blacklist?”
-Is writer Oksang Lim on the whitelist?
“With about 200 pieces, it is at the level of sweeping the public art sector across the country. Did you really win the order with only your skills? And yet, they are always fair. I called myself a ‘common-sense progressive right wing’, but recently I’ve taken off the word progressive. The very word “progress” has become very dirty.”
– Progressive Right?
“An artist is someone who reflects on the past, introspects to the bottom of reality, and talks about the future. I played a lot of king roles, but I was also attracted to innovative figures like Jo Gwang-jo, who said, ‘Even a king should not eat unless he sweats.’ But these days, I don’t even want to mention the word “progress”. There is a line from the demon Mephisto in ‘Faust’. ‘When I go down to the human world, there are many worse people than me, so I’m on the verge of becoming unemployed.’ Isn’t this just the world these days? People who commit sins are more confident, and say they are unfair.”
Culture and art must compete to survive
– Why did the president appoint Yu In-chon as special advisor on culture?
“Isn’t it to make a new framework? As long as I am a special advisor, I will constantly ask, knock, and commit.”
-What kind of problem do you have?
“It was 12 years ago when I was minister. In the meantime, the culture and media environment has changed rapidly, but what about us? Hollywood writers and actors started a copyright struggle with Chat GPT , but we can’t even control Netflix. Look at the three terrestrial broadcasters. It became the government’s trumpeter at some point, and these days it is called Noyeong Broadcasting. As long as you put on your headband and fight politics, will there be new content? The platform wave, which was made by investing in three terrestrial broadcasters, also collapsed. In the meantime, Netflix came in with a huge amount of capital and raised labor costs as well as unfair contracts. Cultural policy is also at the level of handing out subsidies to those who ask for help. We need to eliminate the division between genres such as movies, games, and animations and build a convergence and complex support system.”
-Are you going to change the support policy?
“Culture and art must survive through competition. Will there be competition if we distribute a small budget equally to everyone? Livelihood assistance should be stopped. You have to push someone who can do better. Why does the government have to pay for movies that claim to be independent from capital and power? We need to make a narrow gate and thoroughly screen them.”
– Will there be any controversy over fairness?
“Instead, you just need to give them a lot of opportunities to challenge themselves. Variety of indirect support, post support, and incubating support. The review should also go to a responsible review and control system in which the parties are responsible.”
-Some say that Yu In-chon was appointed as a special advisor to drive out leftist artists.
“haha! It’s about the fortune tellers. How embarrassing is ideological debate in the cultural world, which should be the most free. So-called leftist artists also need to break free from the bondage of ideology. It is only in communist countries that art is used as a political tool. If you really want to make a political statement, you can’t stop it. Who will listen to the people who came out on this floor without listening to their parents? However, it should not be demanded to support the government budget. Does it make sense to make a work that goes against the national interest with national money?”
Obtained excavator license after resigning as minister
-There were quite a few things you did during your tenure as minister, such as overhauling the copyright law, establishing the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, and the Hangeul Museum.
“An opposition lawmaker who harassed me ignorantly when I was minister said, ‘I did a really good job because my image deteriorated due to the issue of the head of the institution’ (laughs). I was always on site. On weekends, I traveled across the country on national highways, to the extent that it is said to have circled the earth seven and a half times.’
-Your videos ‘Avoidance Yuna’ and ‘Don’t film’ are still circulating on YouTube.
“It is a maliciously edited video as if I were trying to hug Yuna Kim, who returned from winning the Vancouver Olympics. Sued all the perpetrators. Even though the KBS video that was broadcast live came out and turned out to be a lie, the Democratic Party lawmakers who attacked me did not apologize. You said you were going to die for something you laughed at. It is the politics of this country that somehow tries to disgrace and humiliate. I am angry at the reality that fake news is still prevalent like the instigation of contaminated water in Fukushima. ”
– Is it true that you got your license for excavator and forklift after the minister was over?
“My dream is to build a small cultural space in the forest. To learn how to dig, I went to the Paju Heavy Equipment Academy and learned how to drive an excavator and forklift. I wanted to practice at the apartment construction site, but I heard that beginners don’t use it (laughs).”
-You say you have been crossing the country by bicycle for 7 years with delinquent teenagers.
“I thought that if I served as minister for three years, I should live the rest of my life serving. At first, he went to the Uiwang Orphanage to teach theater, and then from 7 years ago, he rode a bicycle from Busan to Seoul. In the first year, he threw his bike and threw his temper, but that changed over time. The recidivism rate has also dropped.”
-At the age of 71 , he cycled across Europe.
“There are 17 bike routes that connect all of Europe, called Eurobello. Equipped with a camera with a friend who was a PD at a broadcasting company , I rode Route 15 from Switzerland to Germany and the Netherlands. At the last minute, I ran out of stamina and cursed all over (laughs). I wondered if I could do anything in the future.”
– It must have been a simple trip.
“Our bicycle population is 13 million. However, there is no proper bicycle path other than the four major rivers built during the Lee Myung-bak administration. I wanted to check out the bike paths in Europe. Signposts and traffic lights are separate, biketels (accommodation), and roads leading to the city are well established. I plan to release this documentary soon on TV or YouTube.”
fight an unbeatable enemy
-In the play ‘Faust’, which sold out all seats at the LG Art Center last spring, you played the role of the devil Park Hae-soo.
“It is difficult for an actor who has become a star to return to the stage. However, this friend gave up all his schedules and went all-in only on plays. He arrived an hour before practice and left the practice field at the very end. I found a gem.”
-This time it’s Faust, but in the past you mainly played Mephisto (the devil).
“Mephisto acting is fun. There is definitely pleasure in evil (laughs). Human Faust had a hard time. A human who wants to become a god, a human who desires endlessly. He suffered because he was a person who could not be resolved only by expressing his emotions on the outside. When I played Mephisto, Yoon Joo-sang played Faust, and I think I know why Yoon Joo-sang was in such pain (laughs). I acted with the feeling of digging for diamonds.”
– Is your life Hamlet played 6 times?
“Holstomer. It satirizes the human world through the eyes of a discarded racehorse. A man who saw this play wrote to me. I was going to commit suicide when my business went bankrupt during the IMF , but after watching your play, I decided to live again. I will definitely succeed and become your sponsor.”
-Acting and politics, which is more difficult?
“Acting is much more difficult for me. Because it is impossible to get 100 points. Of course, politics is also difficult, but there are achievements there. But acting is different. I can do up to 95 points, but I struggle to fill the remaining 5 points and leave without being able to finish it, which is acting.”
– I think I would have lived without suffering.
“I was born in refugee time. I remember the scene in the middle of winter when my mother boiled water on a briquette stove to cook cold rice. Even if you put in just one air, the quantity grew so that the whole family could eat it. Her mother packed her lunch box, changing each type of kimchi to either stir-fried or stewed kimchi. The source of my creativity is my mother’s lunchbox (laughs).”
– Is aging good?
“No way. I wish I could go back 20 years. I still have to pick the stars and the moon, but time is too short.”
– What’s your favorite line?
“Quixote! Let’s dream an impossible dream, love토토사이트 an impossible love, fight an unbeatable enemy, endure unbearable pain, and catch the unattainable star in the sky!”
☞Yoo In-chon
was born in 1951 in Wanju, Jeollabuk-do and grew up in Seoul. After graduating from the Department of Theater and Film at Chung-Ang University, she debuted as an MBC talent talent in 1974 . He appeared in a number of dramas such as ‘Diary of the Countryman’, ‘The Years of Ambition’ and ‘500 Years of the Joseon Dynasty’, and also hosted a KBS history special. He gave his greatest passion to plays such as ‘Hamlet’, ‘Faust’, ‘Macbeth’, ‘King Lear’ and ‘Problematic Human Operation’. During the Lee Myung-bak administration, he served as the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism.