Mundo Mendo exhibition

It should come as no surprise that one of the world's most prolific and well travelled illustrators, Luis Mendo, has decided to go all-in on his second solo exhibition. Aptly named 'MUNDO MENDO - Fantastic City Life' it opens in Seoul on June 30th, running to Dec 3rd 2023,

The show is all about the art of Luis and the romance – big and small – he finds in urban life. In his hands, scenes as mundane as the grey city skyline or the subway ride to work in an uneventful city take on a movie-like quality, drawing you into his world. You might find cities to be chaotic, busy, crammed spaces but Luis shows there is beauty and life to enjoy around every corner.

Over 650 pieces are spread over the 4 floors of Groundseesaw Seochon, a beautiful venue in Seoul's old centre, where the rooms are divided into themes with carefully selected pieces from Luis's archive of both commissioned and personal work made over the last few years. You absolutely should check out this short video tour created by Groundseesaw on YouTube.

With his trademark energy and enthusiasm, Luis took time to tell us what it's all about!

Congrats on your biggest solo show to date, “Mundo Mendo, Fantastic City Life”. How did the show come about?

Thanks so much. It’s been a fun ride and one I would highly recommend to anyone: in January a company I’d never heard from in my life contacted me from South Korea asking me to do a show. It took me a while to understand this wouldn’t be a regular art show with static work hanging on a wall, but this company (Groundseesaw / Media & Art) is specialized in making more immersive exhibitions where the visitor takes a trip through the work or subject. When we started talking they said they’d need about 300 works, which was already a shock. We ended up using more than 600 at the end.

Next to the exhibited pieces there’s almost a hundred merchandising items carrying my drawings, plus a big inflatable Mr Mendo on the rooftop, a real size drawing of my studio space and even a Mr Mendo Cat! The idea is that people attending the show spend at least one hour enjoying the work and what it represents, in my case it’s “Fantastic city life” .

It looks huge! How much work went into making this?

Well, it took us 5 months! I took a break from commercial commissions and dedicated myself to the show: for instance I wanted to have a comic book which would be a companion to the catalogue, so I worked on this 250-pages pocket book that I think makes the “story” more interesting and worth revising once you’ve been to the show. Also I created my own typefaces for the typesetting of the book texts but then we went on to use those fonts throughout the show, which tied everything together. I only regret not having more time to have made also a Korean (hangul) font for it.

I can tell you, I am so happy I’ve had a former career as a graphic designer and art director. Although Media&Art team were super professional, I was very critical and knew exactly how I wanted things to look like.

We've lost count of how many illustrations you've created. How many pieces are displayed, and how did you select them?

Since I haven’t been an illustrator that long (just about 9 years), I do not have an unlimited amount of pieces but yes, this show contains about 650 on display plus a few I did specifically for the show like the poster and some characters for the merchandise or the rendering of my office.

The Groundseesaw team took my WHOLE archive and made a rough selection first, then I was able to filter it a bit more, but the most difficult task was to, once selected, distribute and group the pieces in a way that would feel coherent and understandable for the average visitor who has never seen anything from me. Project manager and curator Eunsol Song was crucial in the whole process.

Can you tell us a little bit more about the venue?

Of course. Media&Art has three Groundseesaw venues scattered around Seoul. The Seochon one is the biggest and is located in old Seoul, near what used to be the emperor’s palace. It’s a beautiful area filled with lovely galleries, small quirky shops and cafes. Many cafes, Koreans loved their coffee! In any case, the venue is like a small museum with four floors. In the first floor a beautiful garden and pond which grows through the building giving the whole a very nice natural light. The other 3 floors are like a maze of rooms they design and redistribute for each show to accommodate the themes on display better. The rooftop is relatively small but offers a good moment of respite after having seen all the work. That’s where the 3m x 2m inflatable Mr Mendo lives.

Did you have a particular narrative or messages you wanted to convey through this exhibition?

The title of the show gives away that 1 - it’s my world, and 2 - it’s about fantastic City Life. With these 2 core ideas, we grouped the work in things like “Who is Luis Mendo” (personal stories I’ve drawn), My Family (stories and portraits of my dear ones), Life in Tokyo (my everyday life), etc. The Fantastic City Life part is more about “train travels” (drawings made mainly in the train), “Bright lights” (night scenes), “Wandering the city” etc. The funny thing is that most of the Fantastic City Life are commissioned jobs that fit incredibly well next to my personal work.

Were there any notable reactions or feedback from visitors that stood out to you in your first week?

We sold 50.000 tickets on the presale which was mind-blowing to me. I keep getting comments and seeing posts on Instagram where people mostly talk about how happy they are to see a positive look on urban life and also about the analog-digital quality of my work.

What innovative display ideas can we expect to see at the exhibition?

There are a few things I am particularly happy about, like the drawing on a curtain (noren we call it in Japanese) where you go from one room to the other, the fake window which is only open ajar to show drawings of open windows I made, or the one with 3 colour versions of the same drawing, which get shown in turns if you keep looking at it for a few seconds…

Besides the Mundo Mendo HighBall (whiskey & soda) collaboration you did and the beautiful catalogue, what else can we find at the gift shop?

So many things. They made all kinds, from key rings to chiffon curtains, umbrellas with drawings I made of my child, small rugs and of course tote bags, phone & pillow cases. Also pens, pencils, sketchbooks, diaries… I am still waiting for all the product photos to see them all in one sitting, hope to be able to share them soon.

I have been told the catalogue is going to be for sale to overseas customers but the rest of the merch is only available for domestic market. I am afraid you will all have to visit Seoul before December the 3rd or wait until the show starts traveling.

Where would you like to take the Mundo Mendo exhibition next?

The whole idea is to make the show tour to other Asian countries after December 3rd. Maybe Singapore, Hong Kong or Shanghai, hopefully Tokyo: I would love it to come to Japan the most, of course.

What next for you, or should we say... Mr Mendo ...(!)?

Ha! Well spotted. I think it is a good idea to make Mr Mendo a different entity from now on, something I can give it a more independent life from the rest of my work. How that will work out, only chance and time will say. For now I have created his website, mrmendo.com, where you can read about the show, download an iMessage stickers pack and very soon buy some apparel items. Hope to be able to make him bigger soon. For now this is all a practice, a lesson, a class in creating worlds I have never been into and that makes me excited.