So I went to the Serendipity exhibition
First things first, I had a wonderful time. It was well worth the price of admission (nearly $40), and I would go again. That being said, time to complain!
The exhibition was in a giant warehouse, and it did not have air conditioning. It was like 90 degrees yesterday. There fans and water coolers and we were allowed to bring water bottles inside. There were also fans placed throughout, but they blew hot air since that’s all they had. I kept having to kneel down in front of those and just let the air blow on me. My vertigo was acting up and I kept getting lightheaded. We also had hand-held fans but again, only hot air. If it had been a little cooler, we probably would have stayed longer, as it is we were there for an hour and a half.
I went with two other people, my sister and my best friend. Our time slot was for four, we were told to start lining up at 3:30. I think we got there a little before 3 and lined up in a parking garage, again they had water so there was that at least. There were about 30/40 people a head of us, I think, and they did let us in on time at 4.
The first room had the gold plates and the members names, that and the room with the mirrors, and the room with the bathtub/sink were the only times we were really like, surrounded by people and even then the biggest problem was getting a clear picture. We were lucky in that way, as we lined up it seemed there were a lot of us but inside we were spread out enough that it didn’t feel crowded at all. It might have been a different story had we been at the back of the line.
The rooms we weren’t allowed to take pictures in were rooms that were full of photos, pictures taken of individual members and the group on MV shoots, behind shoots, on stage, backstage, etc. They were printed on panes of glass, each maybe about a foot long and 7/8 inches tall. And the pictures were all gorgeous. The three of us were going through those rooms like “yes I need this one, and this one, and that one…” like we wished they were selling those exact photos in that exact medium because they would have been beautiful and probably expensive but so worth it. So many pictures of them just being SOFT.
The other rooms we weren’t allowed to take photos in had the costumes with gas masks the members designed and there was a video about the design process, but again it was so hot we didn’t linger. There was also a room of video screens with gold frames, one for each member, and they would like walk into the frame, stare, lean forward, smirk (YOONGI), wave, walk away, repeat. J-Hope’s frame was mostly him giggling, and Jin was being beautiful, but Yoongi….god I couldn’t look away from him.
At the end was the merch table, like BigHit does at concerts you get a paper with your options, pick what you want, and then get called up to a table place your order. One thing they had was “live photos,” which initially I filled out my order form before I even went inside because I knew what I wanted, so I just checked random boxes for the live photos (except for Jin, I wanted all of his). But then when you got to the merch table they had banners showing what the live photos looked like so that threw me off and made me buy more than I planned. Still, I think the pictures they offered weren’t the ones showcased inside the exhibition.
While on line my friend was like “Oh I really want Jimin’s poster…but I have to save for kcon…” and I was like “listen, kcon comes every year, this is a once in a lifetime event.” And the couple on line behind us was like “do it, buy it.” And I was like “listen this is the worst place to ask someone to talk you out of buying something, this place is full of enablers.”
And then on the way back to the train station it started raining and the wind was blowing and it kicked up dust that pelted us as we crossed Atlantic avenue. NOT FUN.
But overall, it was worth it and I’m so glad I went. If I had more money, I would totally go again.