This project takes as its launching off point--and its home!--a controversial reconstruction of a western-styled train station built in 1925 under Japanese occupation (1910- 1945). The new culture station housed within aims to aid in the processing of complex national memory through art and culture by providing a space for art and performances that, as the brochure puts it, "take on themes of history and the present, humanity and culture, restoration and rebirth, preservation and extinction, and original form and modification."
The reconstruction is fantastic, and the space is vast, labyrinthian, and open to meandery exploration. Beautifully reconstructed period rooms--from former VIP waiting rooms to one of the first Western restaurants in Seoul to the epic entry hall--provide the context for a wide variety of contemporary artworks, produced as site-specific pieces responding to the themes, ghosts and histories evoked here. My favorite pieces included a 9-screen film installation about Korean Shamanism, a video where a man got into costume and became a tree, and an enigmatic ghostly plant which filled a side chamber. There was also a very effecting temporary exhibition of
Yonhap International Press Photo Awards which featured documentary photography related to the UN’s eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), "which include freeing people from extreme poverty and hunger, making primary education available to all and eradicating preventable diseases."
Deputy director Sewon Oh took my interpreter Ahhyung and I on a tour, including behind the scenes views. It reminded me in some ways of New York's PS1, but seemed more overtly directed towards history and memory, which really appealed to me. A really wonderful and exciting project; I look forward to seeing what develops there.
Here are some views; as always, click on image to see much larger version:
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| The former restaraunt, one of the first western restaurants in Seoul |
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| The former VIP waiting room, for kings and princes |
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| Eerie art piece in a small chamber filled with water |
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| The orignal chandelier |
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| Original fixtures from the archive |
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| More original fixtures from the archive |
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| Traversing backstage |
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| My interpreter, Ahhyung, going down the stairs |
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| Sculpture of a famous rebel who fought the Japanese occupation throwing a bento-box bomb |
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| Back to the market to buy a new camera lens |
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