68 People Paid to Block a Museum Entrance

During the inaugural celebration of Pusan’s International Contemporary Art Festival, PICAF, 68 people were hired to sit in an orderly fashion in front of the main entrance to the event. They remained there for three consecutive hours in the same position, barely moving. All of them were paid 3,000 wons per hour, the equivalent to $3, which is twice the amount of Korea’s minimum wage of 1500 wons. This wage is often disregarded given the circumstance that the workers at this museum, where the action took place, earned $12 per day for a working journey which frequently exceeded ten hours. Five of the hired workers held signs in English and Korean which read: “I am being paid 3,000 wons per hour to undertake this job”. This text was visible to the public and the authorities present at the inaugural event.