Girls’ Generation’s latest performance will air on Jan. 1, marking the release of their fourth album.The girl group will perform the title tracks of the fourth album, “I Got a Boy” and “Dancing Queen,” on MBC’s “New Year’s Special Girls’ Generation Romantic Fantasy,” which will be aired at 11:15 p.m. on New Year’s Day. According to the broadcaster, hundreds of fans gathered to see the girl group’s performance which was pre-recorded on Dec. 23. The girl group hinted at their comeback last week on

Don’t judge a book by its cover, so goes an old saying, but looking at this book exhibition one is reminded of what Oscar Wilde once said: “It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances; the true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.”Kyobo Book Center’s current exhibition, “Art, Design, Culture: The History of Penguin by Design,” shows how book covers have responded to ― and influenced ― changing trends and culture in the past 77 years. The exhibition, featuring des

Former Culture Minister Yoo In-chon will break the 7-year hiatus he took from acting with a performance of his own play on Friday. The professional actor-turned-public official will perform the main role in the new play he produced, “Faust ― Goethe and Gounod,” on Friday at Yoo Theater, which he founded in 1999, in Cheongdam-dong, Seoul. Yoo served as the culture minister for three years starting in 2008 under the Lee Myung-bak administration. “I am warming up to my return to being an actor,” Yo

Can a white paper filled with an invisible substance instead of paint and drawings be called art? If the paper contains the most striking idea ever presented, will it change the viewer’s initial perception of the paper? Viewers at the 12th SongEun Art Award exhibition may confront the moment when they have to answer these questions. With artists claiming that “contemporary art is not about who draws well, but about whose idea is better,” more and more artists are challenging the boundaries of ho

From a tough girl image to sexy and sophisticated choreography, five-member girl group EXID is one of the latest projects from the hit-making songwriter and producer Shinsadong Tiger. Original members LE and Sol-ji, and new members Jung-hwa, Ha-ni and Hye-rin, make up the new hip-hop/dance girl group, whose name is a combination of “exit” and “dreaming.”"The concept behind our group’s name is our desires to go beyond just dreaming,” said Ha-ni. EXID first debuted as a six-member group in Februar

 An entrepreneur in the Republic of the Congo is launching what he says is the first African-designed smartphone and tablet.Verone Mankou said his company‘s VMK devices will run the Android operating system and will cost $170 for the smartphone and $300 for the tablet computer, the BBC reported Thursday.“Only Africans can know what Africa needs,” Mankou said at a technical conference in Johannesburg, South Africa.“Apple is huge in the United States, Samsung is huge in Asia and we want VMK to be