Museum hopping gets more exciting

[Rediscover Korea _15]

Museum hopping gets more exciting

 

Seongkok Art Museum in Jongno [Seongkok Art Museum]

There were days when art in Korea was only found within the concrete walls of high-profile museums.

Except for artists or art students, the primary visitors used to be families, who would visit museums about twice a year for the kids' vacation assignments.

During the past few years, however, the situation has changed.

Museum hopping has become more familiar and convenient than before, even becoming one of the number one choices for dates or family picnics.

Galleries, national museums and artists are making various changes to be loved by the public. If museums were for artists in the past, now they are turning into places for visitors.

Better yet, the Korean art market is slowly recovering from the global economic crisis, resulting in higher earnings in autumn auctions. Market insiders are cautiously hoping for another "Year 2007," a reference to the most prosperous year in the Korean art market's history.

Naturally, the quality and number of exhibitions have also risen, especially during the past few months to the delight of art fans here.

The same goes for foreign visitors. Whether they are art aficionados or casual travelers, the country offers a wide range of art venues and works of many genres to explore and enjoy.

 

Art streets and villages

Like department stores or malls, where one can visit hundreds of shops in a single venue, art galleries and artists have clustered in several venues so that visitors can get better access to them.

The art belt in central Seoul, which connects Sagan-dong, Samcheong-dong and Insa-dong was one of the first, and is now one of the most popular art areas in Seoul.

Among about 300 galleries in Seoul, nearly 130 are gathered in the area, including some of the citiest best, such as Gallery Hyundai, Kukje Gallery, Hakgojae Gallery, Seomi and Tuus Gallery and Arario Gallery.

The simplest way to visit them is to start at Anguk subway station. Leave the car at home - the streets are very narrow and there are few spaces to park cars, and you will miss out on so many things that you can see here and there along the streets.

Walk north from the station, and the area between Pungmoon Girls' High School and Samcheong Park, is Sagan-dong and Samcheong-dong.

In addition to the galleries, there are also many shops, cafes and restaurants famous for their unique exterior and interior designs. No wonder the area is so popular with photographers.

The galleries, shops and cafes in Insa-dong, which is the area that spreads out to the south from Anguk station, tend to exhibit more "Koreanness." So the streets are often crowded with tourists looking for souvenirs like accessories or paintings, or getting a drink at a traditional cafe.

The art streets in central Seoul are very crowded on the weekends so it is better to visit on weekdays if you can.

In southern Seoul, about 50 galleries are packed in Cheongdam-dong and Sinsa-dong, including Opera Gallery, Die Galerie and Park Ryu Sook Gallery.

If the galleries in central Seoul are more natural and bohemian, situated beside old palaces and parks, the galleries down in southern Seoul appear more luxurious, placed next to posh department stores and boutique shops.

Aiming to make the area a famous art belt like the one in central Seoul, the galleries often get together to hold art festivals. If you come at the right time, you can see expensive sculptures on show and fashion shows on the streets.

Moving onto a bigger scale, the most famous art village in the metropolitan area is "Heyri Art Valley" in Paju city, Gyeonggi Province.

It started as a book village named "Paju Publishing Town" in 1997. But many artists from various cultural fields fled in as the town developed, finally expanding the concept of the village as a cultural art village.

The name "Heyri" comes from the title of a traditional farming song of Paju called "The Sound of Heyri."

Now, more than 370 writers, artists, cineastes, architects and musicians live or work in the village in their houses, studios, galleries and museums. Nearly a hundred galleries and museums are found there.

 

Art in unexpected places

Art, perhaps tired from being locked up in buildings, is crawling out from galleries and museums and are appearing in unexpected places.

Not yet as world-renowned as those in Lyon, France, but the wall paintings near Hongik University are quite a sight.

It is the university's art majoring students who paint the walls. The work is not permanent, because they are quickly painted over again. But in many ways it is better, showing how quickly students reflect recent trends or events on their work.

One of the most remarkable changes that has occurred during the last few years in terms of art is that the government has become much more art-friendly.

The walls of the Cheonggye stream, which flows through the heart of Seoul, are often decorated with artworks.

And along the Teheran Street in Seoul's Gangnam district, the government has placed 11 meter tall, 1 meter wide media stations that show advertisements and video art, granting one of Seoul's most complicated and polluted roads an artistic touch.

Unexpected artwork is also waiting to be discovered on the outskirts of Seoul, in Yangpyeong city, Gyeonggi Province. Supported by the government, the city, which is another famous art village and eco-friendly cultural zone, is currently holding an art festival titled "Echo of Eco."

The notable part of this festival is that all exhibits outdoors - which are installed around the Han River Eco Park, Gangha Sewage Treatment Facility and Gangsang Sports Park - will stay there permanently after the festival is over.

Think about it, would it not be fun to see interesting sculptures at a sewage treatment facility?

 

Evolution of private galleries

As it became clear that creating a good gallery was no longer simply a question of what works to exhibit, galleries turned to focus more on other things like their buildings, the surrounding environment, and what more they can offer at the gallery other than art.

Popular galleries these days all have something more they can boast about - a welcoming change for visitors because they can enjoy much more at one spot.

For instance, Seongkok Art Museum in Jongno-gu, central Seoul, has a forest path that leads to a wonderful cafe. With just the right sculptures scattered in the woods, the cafe is like an oasis found in the middle of the dusty city.

The museum is about 30 minutes walk from Gyeongbokgung and Gwanghwamun station, so it is a great place for businessmen who work nearby to visit to enjoy a quick coffee and some art.

Gallery Hyundai is another gallery famous for its restaurant, called Dugahun, meaning "A very beautiful house."

Dugahun 640 opened next to Gallery Hyundai Gangnam Space in Cheongdam-dong in September last year, while Gallery Hyundai in Sagan-dong had already gained fame with the original Dugahun since its opening in November, 2004.

Dugahun looks like a hanok, or Korean traditional house, on the outside, but in the inside, it is run as a cafe in the afternoon and a restaurant and wine bar at night. The place is popularly used for private gatherings, parties and even weddings. It launched a wedding service last month.

PKM Trinity Gallery, placed in the basement floors of The Trinity Place building in Cheongdam-dong, benefits from the building's other attractions, notably a multi-concept shop named 10 Corso Como on the first floor.

As soon as it opened in March, 2008, the shop which sells trendy clothes, accessories, books and music and also runs a cafe and a restaurant, became one of the hottest spots in town. Thanks to the gallery and 10 Corso Como, the whole building is considered as a one-stop cultural zone for young people.

If you are not much into artificial buildings or products, turn to nature-friendly galleries.

Soma Museum of Art in Bangi-dong, southeastern Seoul, offers views of the serene lake and the vast green of the Olympic Park, as it is situated inside it.

And far away in Jeju Island, Jeju Dumoak Gallery also takes advantage of the nature it is surrounded in.

At the front gate of the gallery, which used to be a school, thousands of basalt rocks greet visitors and the playground is filled with unusual shaped rocks and little sculptures, forming a maze. Moreover, the sea-scented Jeju breeze adds freshness to the gallery.

 

National museums getting better

Not wanting to become out of date, national and city-run museums are also working hard to get public attention, resulting in some remarkable improvements.

Seoul Museum of Art in Seosomun-dong, central Seoul, was selected as the museum that Koreans wanted to visit the most last year, according to a survey of 15,573 people done by Art Price, a monthly art magazine. Gallery Hyundai came in first in the gallery category.

The museum, which is ran by Seoul city, has held many experimental exhibitions so far, including "The Storming Party in Art Museum" which whimsical sculptures by young artists were scattered around the front yard and the roof of the museum.

Currently, the museum is holding "City_net Asia 2009," which introduces art from four different Asian cities.

National Museum of Contemporary Art, Deoksugung, is situated right next to Seoul Museum of Art, inside the Deoksugung walls.

It is one of the three national contemporary art museums, a project the government is ambitiously carrying out. Two of them have already been established - the other being the museum in Gwacheon, which just celebrated its 40th anniversary. The last one will be established in 2012 at the former Defense Security Command complex in Sogyeok-dong, central Seoul.

When completed, each of the three will have different roles - the Gwacheon museum will focus on preserving and showcasing its collections and using its vast outdoor space, the Deoksugung museum will maximize its image as a museum inside an old palace by holding exhibitions that focus on traditional genres of modern and contemporary art, and the third museum, which will probably be fully-equipped with the latest equipment, will hold exhibitions on new media art combined with modern technologies.

Officials are especially counting on the third national contemporary museum to come, that it would become one of world's leading museums like Tate Modern in London, the Museum of Modern Art in New York or Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid.

(claire@heraldm.com)

By Park Min-young