Korean museums re-imagining art and exhibition spaces

Museums in Korea are reimagining art and exhibition spaces,... as they re-examine the purpose of museums in the rapidly changing society.
Unlike their 19th century origins, museums today have become more than displays of art and history.... but center of culture, education, and entertainment... a venue to engage the public with art.
Re-visioning art and exhibition spaces in Korea is the topic of our Culture Spot this week... this piece by Kim Jungsoo.

The National Palace Museum of Korea in Seoul has a collection of over 40,000 relics from various palaces in the country, but beginning this week, it showcases a rare collection from overseas.
The exhibition displays several folding screens, or Gwakbunyang Haengrakdo , that have been given new life through a months-long restoration process.
The screens had been sitting, forgotten, in the vaults of the the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Spencer Museum at the University of Kansas... until they were re-discovered and sent to Korea.

"The relocation and restoration of the screens were possible thanks to the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation. The screens depict a day in the life of Guo Ziyi, a mythical Chinese figure of wealth and happiness, and were regularly used as the backdrop for royal processions during the Joseon Dynasty."

The screens, which will now stay in the country until February, symbolize good fortune, and curators thought the end of the year was a good time to put them on display as a good-luck charm for visitors.

"It's quite amusing to think that royalty from generations back worried and wished for the same things that we do now."

But it's not just artworks that are being restored.
Nowadays, the museums themselves are trying to restore and redefine their purpose.

"The Seoul Museum of Art on the other hand, features an even more intriguing exhibition: a very archive of its own exhibitions from 1988 to 2016."

The exhibition, which is subtitled "Reading, Writing, Speaking," features catalogues, pamphlets and memorabilia from exhibitions past.

"As the curator, I created an archive of the museum's past exhibitions, so that people can read about it, talk about it and then re-write what they think is the direction that the museum should take in the modern 'post-museum' era."

The museum director hopes the exhibition archive will remind viewers that the museum still has a long way to go in terms of representing the lives and visions of the Korean people.

"Public museums in Korean history have been strongly influenced by the central government, so I think museums still have a long way to go in reflecting the stories of the Koreans who have been neglected in this top-down approach."

But viewers aren't the only ones being encouraged to think and talk about how museums are evolving.
An exhibition at Amado Art Space in Yongsan District shows the contrasting visions and styles of two artists who "talk" to each other through their works.
The exhibition also features an archive by the artist Jo Hye-jin, but with a distinctly different purpose.

"The archive at our studio is different from the one at SEMA. In a way, it is an archive of how we confront and then process everyday information in the form of vectors, maps and diagrams, which are then shared with others for use."

The archive is then juxtaposed against paintings by a different artist, who is seeking to recreate the atmosphere of various industrial spaces and workplaces by painting them in a deliberately formless and ambiguous style.

"I believe that the very slow process of interpreting art is just as valuable as the artwork itself. My works challenge viewers to confront their own problematic definitions of what art is or is not."

The studio hopes to match and juxtapose the works of more emerging artists from various backgrounds, so that viewers can rediscover their passion for art and participate in the ever-changing dialogue with both artist and host.
Kim Jung-soo, Arirang News.

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