Mundo Mendo Goes to Seoul: The World of Luis Mendo on Display

On June 30, an exhibition devoted to the work of illustrator Luis Mendo opened at Groundseesaw Seochon in Seoul. Occupying four floors and displaying more than 650 pieces, Mundo Mendo allows visitors to immerse themselves in Luis Mendo’s world and experience his life in Tokyo. Having contributed to the Communication issue of MAS Context in 2012, two years later he guest edited our issue dedicated to Tokyo. Coinciding with the opening of his exhibition, Iker Gil interviewed illustrator Luis Mendo to learn more about the larger-than-life Mundo Mendo.

IG: In 2014 you guest edited our Tokyo issue. Tell us how your work as an illustrator has evolved since then.

LM: It was only nine years ago and it feels as if it was so much longer. My work has definitely evolved in many ways. For starters, back then I was not yet even thinking of myself as an illustrator in the full sense of the word. I loved to draw and much of my energy went into it, but it was just a way of getting to know Tokyo and putting down my experiences on paper. Now I still draw every day but, miraculously, I get paid for it. I am in a very different place: I have settled in Japan (made my tenth Japanniversary just the other day), I married a Japanese woman, I had my second child, Covid happened... many things that make you change your perspective. On a professional level, what has brought about the biggest change was signing as an illustrator with the fabulous Handsome Frank agency in London and the relative success of my personal project, The HomeStayer.

IG: On June 30, you opened your exhibition Mundo Mendo at Groundseesaw Seochon in Seoul, which will run until December 3. How did the exhibition come to be and can you tell us about how the show is displayed?

LM: As it so often goes in my life, it happened miraculously. One of the curators there had spotted my work online and approached me this past January asking if I would be interested in doing a big show for them. It took me a while to understand that this would be a different kind of show compared to what I had done in the past. They organize experiences rather than just art shows where work hangs on the walls. First, you have the sheer amount of work on view: 650 pieces spread over four floors of a small museum building. Dedicated theme rooms have been set up as an extension of the pieces: rooms with plants, spaces that look like a children’s playground, shōji windows around drawings of Tokyo window views, and rooms that look like a train car. They also have big props like an inflatable me on the rooftop or a huge cat with my character’s face. They have drawings printed on noren curtains and a life-size, meters-long drawing of my studio space. Also, there is a lot of merchandise carrying my work for sale in the gift shop, which is something I had never done before.

IG: Can you explain a bit the title of the show? Why Mundo Mendo and why the subtitle Fantastic City Life?

LM: First, we needed a title that would be easy to say—and remember—for Koreans, and since they had squeezed all the works from my archive, I thought Mundo Mendo covered it well. It seems to be easily understandable for them. The subtitle is a way of clarifying the subjects you can find there. Since most of the work is about my life in Tokyo and focuses on urban themes, treated with my preference for positive view of things, Fantastic City Life seemed like a good way to sum it up.

IG: After a three-month sabbatical in Tokyo, a decade ago you decided to move permanently to the city from Amsterdam. How has living in Tokyo impacted you personally and your work?

LM: It definitely and expectedly has shaped my work in many ways. Personally, of course it meant a lot, but I’d rather talk about how it changed me professionally: you can’t be a visual person in Tokyo without being touched by it all. Japanese culture is highly visual and that rubs off on your work sooner or later. For me, it’s been in themes (urban landscapes, old school tech, traditions weaven into the modern world), Japanese color palettes, and the line strokes from masters like Hiroshige and Hokusai.

IG: Can you highlight a few pieces from the exhibition?

LM: I like the curators’ choice on what work would go big and get more exposure, and which ones would be smaller in size and presence. Particularly, I like how these play an important role:

• Shoji windows

I made these for my very first show in Tokyo at Isetan Shinjuku. They are a series of views from shōji (paper sliding panel) windows, where we can see a bit of the interior. Since it is rare you are invited to visit people’s homes in Japan—most life takes place outside, in bars and restaurants—I wanted to imagine and draw what people’s rooms looked like.

• The Homestayer’s The Sun Swimmer

The Homestayer was a series of faux magazine covers I made a la The New Yorker when we were all in lockdown and staying in the same place: home. This one was a memory from my house in Amsterdam, when my ex-wife would hang a bedsheet on the balcony window to keep the sun out. The Groundseesaw team printed this in a huge-sized canvas and placed it in one of the rooms upstairs where the natural light is generous. It doesn’t show well in photos but it works beautifully when you visit the show.

• Lunch on the High Line

I am pretty happy how light coming through the canvas makes a print more interesting. This drawing is about having lunch in the shade with the city as a background. When placed in a dark space it works really well.

IG: Mr Mendo, your alter ego, is the main character that allows you to say the things that perhaps you wouldn’t communicate under your real name. Tell us more about the development of Mr Mendo and why it came to be.

LM: It all started as a joke, a fun avatar for my socials, but after making a couple of comics stories with him, it developed into a full character with its own life and personality. It’s me alright, but he has the ability to be an idiot or a fool far away from me, so I feel less bad than drawing myself in awkward situations. I just put him there to suffer and be in shame in my stead.

When we were doing promotional things for the show, I came up with the iMessage stickers based on him. It quickly seemed too much; I didn’t want Mr Mendo to become the reason why people knew me and thought it would be good to separate him from my other work. Also, it allowed him to breathe his own life, so I created a website mrmendo.com where I hope to compile more of his developments and adventures, while I try to keep him out of my portfolio site. I really want him to take off without taking over my work. We’ll see what happens.

IG: Were there any influences or references when developing your alter ego? Perhaps other illustrators?

LM: Of course, Spain’s most famous cartoon character Mortadelo (Mort of Mort & Phil) by the recently deceased Francisco Ibáñez is the main reference, as they both can dress up as anything they want (a cantaloupe, a truck, or a giant mosquito) and still remain themselves. Also, there is a bit of Tío Vázquez (another alter-ego), a self-declared loser and creditor’s nightmare. For the drawing style I borrowed a bit of Franquin’s Spirou dynamism. I guess you can see a bit of all the comics I have read through my life in everything I do.

IG: The exhibition provides a comprehensive view of your work and expands beyond the walls into a catalog, a graphic novel, and other merchandise. Tell us more about that expanded world.

LM: The most important thing for me was to provide a clear overview of the work I have been doing since I left my design career ten years ago until today. The catalog that includes all the show’s works is a great tool for that. The graphic novel is something different. All the stories that I have written and drawn were spread thin throughout different media and this volume puts them together in a nice way. Having them in a compilation makes sense since it comes out together with the show. There was a long story that could become a book, some comics I did for the The New York Times and El País, a few life reflections with Mr Mendo, and some stories about my daily life in Tokyo. The title of the graphic novel, Tokyo y yo, is a way of closing the circle. When I first visited Japan in 2000, I made a daily comic of everything I had seen or done that day; I called it Tokyo y yo. Those stories were seen by some art directors who ended up giving me illustration commissions, which were the spark that ignited my illustration career. Without those, I wouldn’t have this. Giving this book the same title made sense to me. Now I can finally turn the page and start anew.

IG: Has the experience of conceiving this exhibition and seeing your work in one space made your think differently about your work or given you new ideas?

LM: I learned that I would love it if someone did a show of this kind of size for me once I am dead, or I would do it if I ever stop drawing to do something else. A retrospective that looks back should, in my opinion, close a chapter, make space for something new, mark an end. That’s how I take Mundo Mendo: as a milestone that marks the moment and now leaves space for something new. Do not ask me what that is going to be because I don’t quite know. Sculpture is getting a lot of my attention, but also maybe more art and less commissioned work. I am still in that liminal space where everything is possible.