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| Participants in diverse costumes attend the 2022 Space-out Competition on Jamsu Bridge over Han River in Seoul, Sept. 18, 2022. Newsis |
By Lee Hae-rin
Seoul's annual Space-out Competition will return to its signature venue, the Han River, later this month.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government said, Sunday, that this year's competition will be held on Jamsu Bridge, May 21, starting at 4 p.m. Vehicle traffic will be regulated to let the players space out without any distractions. Online registration for the event will open from 9 p.m. Monday and close at 12 p.m. Thursday.
The Space-out Competition is a performance art event that aims to inspire weary city dwellers to take a break and do nothing, challenging the widespread belief that zoning out is a waste of time by rewarding the most spaced-out individuals.
The event grew in size to 70 teams this year from 50 that competed in 2022. Each team will include up to three individuals.
When the event returned after a three-year hiatus amid the COVID-19 pandemic last year, the city government had to close registration earlier than expected as over 4,000 teams applied in the first two days. Seoul city plans to select participants with diverse backgrounds this year, including their reasons for joining the event, gender, age and profession.
The event was first devised by a Korean visual artist named Woopsyang in 2014 from her personal experience of overcoming burnout by investing time and energy in doing nothing and evolved into an annual event in collaboration with the city government in 2016.
Contestants must sit still and remain spaced out for 90 minutes. Those who engage in conversation, check their smartphones, move around or fall asleep will be eliminated.
They will be given four cards of different colors to use in case they need help ― to ask for water (blue), to ask to be fanned to cool down (yellow), to get a massage to stay awake (red), or to report any other inconvenience (black).
The winner is chosen based on the highest artistic score tallied by audience votes and a technical score based on their steady heart rate.
Three winners will receive a golden trophy inspired by Rodin's "The Thinker" sculpture, with hands mimicking the gesture of Korea's national treasure, "The Pensive Bodhisattva," as the founding artist Woopsyang believes these two symbols represent meditation from both Eastern and Western perspectives.
The annual event received media attention as Korean singer, Crush, became the first winner in 2016.
Last year, the winner of the competition was a baseball fan of the Hanhwa Eagles. When asked about the secret to his victory, the winner said watching the professional baseball team play, which ranks at the bottom of the competition, taught him how to become an expert at daydreaming.
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