The Yongsan itch and the Sajik balm

One up, one down. Seoul speeds up for the redevelopment of Yongsan 4, and puts the brakes on Sajik 2.

We've known for a while* that the future Yongsan Park would be surrounded by high rise structures. After burning their fingers on the doomed Yongsan IBD project, authorities decided to offer their all-you-can-build gifts to speculators in smaller packages, wrapped in green. Here, at the Hangangdae-ro - Seobinggo-ro interesection (Hangangno-dong), a tentative 'Yongsan Parkway' serves as an environmental alibi for more 30-40+ towers:

In Jongno-gu, a far less popular - and far less tragical** - "drama" has also been running for years: the redevelopment of what I call Sajik Heights, the hilly neighborhood nested between Sajik-ro / Sajik Tunnel, Space Bon, and Gyeonghuigung. I've walked its alleyways countless times, and even wrote a short story about Kim Ki-chan meeting my fictional Kim Mudangnim there (the great photographer also used to live in Sajik-dong).

A pigeon, a hanok, a hilly alleyway, Inwangsan - Sajik Heights in 2009

For a decade, Sajik Heights has been preparing for the transformation, and Lotte Castle eventually won the right to build the New Town.

As far as 'urban continuity' goes, it looked consistent with the Gyeonghuigung Xii (Gyonam New Town) rising from the other side of the tunnel / hill / (now almost totally obliterated) fortress wall... 

But Seoul city seized a debate over modifications to stop the process***. Among the landmarks to be protected (let's hope in a less destructive way than nearby Dilkusha****), the 1906 house where Josephine Eaton Peel Campbell lived. I visited that place at the top of the hill, around the time it was used as an office by local residents. It seems to have never been used for the purpose the Campbell estate sold it, which was to promote the education of young girls, in the tradition of Campbell herself, the founder of Baehwa (girls' schools and women's university in Pirun-dong).

Residents are now wondering what's best for them, particularly after witnessing what happened in the vicinity: Gyonam? newtonized. Seochon? bukchonized. So what for Sajikistan?

Whatever happens in the future, something of the old neighborhood shall survive. Or evolve. 

Anyway, it would be nice to see something decent next to a potential UNESCO Heritage site (Yeol still working hard on the Sajik-dan revival*****).

Seoul Village 2016
Welcome to our Korean Errlines! Follow Seoul Village on Facebook and Twitter

Add this page to your favorites
.
* see for instance "Yongsan park - fake forests and real estates" (Feb. 2011)
** if a person died in Yongsan, no casualties for the only tragedy I witnessed when I lived in Sajik-dong, a hanok fire back in 2009.
*** "사직2구역 재개발 추진 7년…110년 된 캠벨 사택 어쩌나" (JoongAng Ilbo 20160413)
**** less forsaken than 5 year ago (see "Sajik Heights and micro-hanokization"), the building seems to have undergone serious change in the name of 'preservation' 
***** rites have been performed for a long while, and the restoration helped as well (see "Sajik-dan enshrined, Naeja-dong revived ?")

SeMA Nowon: better than Gauguin

Never say never again: one year ago, the Seoul Museum of Art announced that it would distance itself from big shows with big international names (see "SeMA to block blockbusters"), but 2012 ended with the Tim Burton extravaganza (talk about big fish), and yesterday*, The  Korea JoongAng Daily detailed SeMA's plans for the year to come, starring a major Paul Gauguin exhibition to be held June-September 2013 in Seosomun branch (talk about a summer blockbuster).

It's great, particularly for a large public who never had the occasion to see really significant works from an artist I love, but I was much more interested in updates regarding the future SeMA North Branch in Nowon-gu.

I always wondered what would come out of this site, still hidden by tall fences last time I passed by, last month. That's a very good location, between Junggye and Hagye stations, surrounded by massive apartment blocks and just in front of a key commercial hotspot: Outlet 2001 +, HomePlus (formerly HomEver, formerly Carrefour Junggye), the second one after Nowon Station, on the other side of Danghyeoncheon. Perfect to reach for new visitors, and to boost Northeast Seoul's cultural life. 

SeMA North Branch (SeMA Nowon? SeMA Junggye?) will be inaugurated in July 2013, and officials quoted in the article mentioned "crafts, design, and architecture" and "public art" as the main "verticals" for the new venue. We also received the confirmation that the Main Branch (SeMA Seosomun) would propose more international magnets. It is very important to couple each event with a more local one: I sincerely hope many visitors to the Tim Burton show stopped by the wonderful exhition of Seoul pictures on the ground floor (see "A thousand villages, a thousand memories - Seoul Photo Festival 2012"). Bonus: that expo was free. But of course, that's not the reason why I visited the Seoul photo festival expo three times, sharing twice very emotional moments with fellow visitors I'd never met before, but who had personal stories with certain pictures or photographers.

The potential repositioning of SeMA Nam Seoul (South Branch, near Sadang) is not very clear, but I guess the editorial line will remain focused on more intimate exhibitions.

What about SeMA Gyeonghuigung, that big space in the most prestigious of all locations, but an empty shell most of the time?

My dream would be a SeMA KIM Ki-chan, a living museum devoted to photography, built around the collection of Seoul's - and probably Korea's - all time greatest photographer, the man who captured the soul of the city, of its people, of its alleyways. Furthermore, Kim Ki-chan grew up just hectometers away from the site, in Sajik-dong.

That would be great: permanent collections of great Korean photographers, temporary exhibitions, and as tribute to the people of Seoul KIM Ki-chan revealed for generations to see in their daily lives, a large space devoted to photos taken by anonym citizens.

At a time when human relations grow virtual, at a time when the whole city is captured thousands of time a day by its citizens and visitors for the whole world to see on social networks, Seoul has a duty to get real and to make something of all its fantastic cultural assets.

Seoul Village 2013
Welcome to our Korean Errlines! Follow Seoul Village on Facebook and Twitter

* "Gauguin exhibition set for Seoul museum" (KJD 2013/01/23)

A thousand villages, a thousand memories - Seoul Photo Festival 2012

 

The theme of this year's SFF couldn't be more Seoulvillagey: "A thousand villages, a thousand memories", with a focus on the city and its inhabitants, and works by amateurs as well as well know classics from such great masters as my all time fave KIM Gi-chan*. The opportunity to see again Reverend Motoyuki Nomura's 1973 Cheonggyecheon, if you missed the expo at Seoul Museum of History.

Above, a 1950 picture of Namdaemun-ro by KIM Han-yong. Below, a 1972 shot by a certain Hanjeong Sik (in this order, his name means Korean food!), taken in Gyeonji-dong, Jongno-gu - that's the neighborhood around Ujeongguk-ro, Jogyesa's street:

Exhibitions also feature simple souvenir snapshots, and memories as fresh as 2012.

While you're roaming between City Hall, SeMA, the Seoul Museum of History and Gyeonghuigung, don't miss the Jeongdong in 1900 expo (expats in Jeongdong / the Korean pavillion at the Universal Exposition of Paris 1900), and see how the museum of history renewed its permanent collections, leveraging on past exhibitions.

 

Seoul Photo Festival 2012
천 개의 마을, 천 개의 기억 (A thousand villages, a thousand memories - exhibitions and conferences)
Date: 20121121-1230
Venues: Seoul Museum of Art - SeMA, Seoul City Hall, Seoul Museum of History
Tel: Dasan 120 (SFF: 070.8240.9902)
Website: SeoulPhotoFestival.com

Jeongdong in 1900
A Strange coexistence in Jeongdong / The Universal Exposition of Paris 1900
Date: 20121109-20130120
Seoul Museum of History
Tel: Dasan 120
Website: museum.seoul.kr

Seoul Village 2012
Welcome to our Korean Errlines! Follow Seoul Village on Facebook and Twitter

* BTW Noonbit recently reedited series of pictures from their archives in a handy format. I already got the complete work of KIM Gi-chan, and a very interesting collection about Korean markets (mainly from the 80s-90s). You can find these white cinderblocks in most libraries and art galleries across Seoul.

Seoul from above : 40 years of archives soon available

Next year, Seoul Metropolitan Government will open its satellite databases (1971-2010) : all citizens will have access to forty years of archives and see how each area evolved over time.

The scale is 1/5,000, the best resolution available these days on paper : I often use an excellent Saehan Map / Blue Map of 2004 Seoul featuring maps on left pages and satellite views on right pages. Expecting every year in vain an updated version...

This online database is exactly what I've been dreaming of for years, but only had once the opportunity to experience "IRL", during last year's excellent exhibition "A Retrospective : Kim Ki-chan and the World of Alleys" : in a display, you could observe a whole charming Seoul village being progressively obliterated and replaced by soulless apartment blocks.

As a teaser, authorities proposed this not so spectacular sample of Ttukseom (top) and COEX (bottom) areas :


I can't wait to browse through those tens of thousands of satellite pictures.

Meanwhile, I'll keep roaming Seoul villages at ground level.

Seoul Village 2011

---UPDATES 2011-2012---
The website (in Korean only): aerogis.seoul.go.kr

Seoul Through Pictures 6

The sixth volume of the adventures of Seoul is now available : "Seoul Through Pictures 6 : Globalizing Seoul (1981-1990)"* covers the transition towards democracy, the Olympic moment, and the acceleration of urban carnage (commoditization of tombstone apt complexes).

Of course, most pictures have no artistic value whatsoever** - the concept is to keep track of urban and social changes across Seoul. The City History Compilation Committee of Seoul launched this unprecedented public initiative in the early 2000s, and soon afterwards, local authorities started to understand the value of photography (ie focus on Cheonggyecheon history, or a comprehensive photo program across all city districts, both under Mayor LEE Myung-bak...).

The series is getting livelier and more consistent with each new volume. And the next issue will cover the Seoul I first met 20 years ago. I really regret not buying the first volume ("Seoul Through Pictures 1: The Modernization of Seoul and its Trials (1876-1910)) when I had the opportunity. Back then I quickly browsed through the pages and recognized too many pictures I'd already seen... Now it's too late : impossible to find a copy.

Personal message : if anyone has a spare copy of that Volume 1, I'd be very interested in purchasing it.

Among my favorite picture books about Korea is a special edition celebrating the 20th anniversary of the 1948 constitution : much less carefully edited than the Seoul in Pictures series but nonetheless very instructive, precisely because of its political biases. The ads are also fun to watch because all the chaebols start communicating to international audiences. The one featuring the first Kia assembly lines tells a lot of the ground covered over the past 40 years...

Seoul Village 2011

* you can order it online at Seoul Selection.
** if you want to be touched by great Korean photographers, try Kim Gi-chan or Choi Min-sik.

A Retrospective : Kim Ki-chan and the World of Alleys

My two favorite photographers are Korean. CHOI Min-sik, the Master of Busan, catches the soul of Korea and tracks humanity across the globe. His message is social and universal. KIM Gi-chan catches the soul of Seoul and tracks humanity across the alleyways of Jung-gu, Mapo-gu, or Jongno-gu (Junglim-dong, Gongdeok-dong, Dohwa-dong, Haengchon-dong...) His message remains local but also reaches for the universal. Both produced the most vivid and moving portraits of Korea.

I never had the privilege to meet KIM Gi-chan in person, but I clearly remember my first encounter with his pictures, during the winter 1991-92. I was visiting the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Gwacheon for the first time. Enjoying it, but feeling kind of strange in this modern architecture. The cover of his book jumped at me in the museum shop : this is Seoul. This is the Seoul I love but never see in the media nor in the galleries. This is the Seoul many want to hide, to forget, to obliterate, to destroy. Not only the old constructions, but the life that blooms in them and around them, the blood that circulates in those alleyways. At long last, vernacular Seoul. I was so glad that someone not only kept an historical record of it but managed to spread so much joy, empathy, and love around with it.

Kim Gi-chan roamed these mazes for over 30 years, and this retrospective doubled by a series of conferences by experts in photography, urbanism, and sociology provides a very interesting sample : essentially black and white pictures from the anthology "골목안 풍경 30년" / "Thirty Years of Back Alley View 1968-2001", and a few notebooks and manuscripts. For pedagogical purpose, the Museum focused on Jungnim-dong, a hilly neighborhood at the frontier between Jung-gu and Mapo-gu, West of Seoul Station, and most central in the late photographer's work.

Kim Gi-chan died in 2005. Most Junglim-dong hanoks had already died of another kind of cancer, replaced by "apateus" and "villas"*. Seoul ? The city somehow managed to survive, undergoing more mutations and mutilations in the process.

Once again, Seoulites should thank the Seoul Museum of History for its most vital work.

"A Retrospective : Kim Ki-Chan and the World of Alleys" / "골목 안, 넓은 세상 : 김기찬 사진전" (photo exhibition)
Seoul Museum of History - 20100427 ~ 20100530
50 Saemunan-gil / 2-1 Sinmunro-2-ga, Jongno-gu, Seoul, Korea 110-062
Phone : 120 (Dasan hotline)

Seoul Village 2010

* spectacular change on the before / after aerial pictures : the part that was spared by Samsung Cyber Village Apartments was overwhelmingly transformed, from the U-shaped traditional roofs to the rectangular top of one-room factories.

The people, the Republic of Korea, and pictures - What's in an exhibition ?

These days, photo exhibitions in Seoul have a knack for turning into political statements : recently, we've seen an utterly conservative presentation of Korean War* in Seoul, and now here is a very progressive exhibition about Korea's most recent history (2008-2010). To me, both exhibitions were worth visiting because each one featured interesting pictures, and because together they told a hell of a lot about nowadays rift in Korean national politics.

One could almost mention asymmetric warfare, with a conservative version in Cheonggyecheon based on words and a "top-down" approach, and a progressive version at the Press Center based on images and a "bottom-up" approach.

In Cheonggyecheon, there was a sharp contrast between non-controversial archives and strong political statements, and some comments from the conservative think tank were so extreme or off-key that they made the whole exhibition sound as biased as North Korean propaganda, or as suspicious as Japanese revisionist textbooks (precisely the "models" those ultra-conservatives like to denounce).

No such contrast at the Press Center, where pictures spoke for themselves, their titles simply completing them, sometimes with dark humor (see below). Here, History is in the making : professional and amateur photographers tell the story of the most delicate moments in LEE Myung-bak's presidency. So it rather felt like watching the news from the opposition's point of view : mass demonstrations / candlelight vigils, ROH Moo-hyun's funerals, Ssangyong strike, the four-river project, the MBC / PD Diary controversy, and even the destruction of Sungnyemun... . Here too, the camera is not lying, but the focus is clearly on one side of the coin.

This exhibition is organized by the National Union of Media Workers (NUMW) under a resolutely "grassroots" angle : the people of Korea is telling the story, exposing what's wrong in the country, taking the camera almost as an act of resistance, and shooting, even if images can hurt. The title could tell it all if it were translated into English as "People, shoot the Republic of Korea"... but no translation is provided, and such a confusion around "shooting pictures / shooting bullets" would be impossible in Korean. A fair translation of "국민, 대한민국을 찍다" could be "People, take a picture of the Republic of Korea", or maybe "Take a picture of the people and Republic of Korea". Nothing dramatic... at that level at least (this is by no means the portrait of a civil war, but there are more than a few fights and tragedies).

Regardless of the political message, a few pictures were really great. Special mention to two photographers who stood out from the crowd :
- Lee Myeong-Ik for his artistic note : an amazing choregraphy on the roof of Ssangyong factory (also : a quasi Georges de La Tour corner picture of a demonstrator probably writing a sign with the light of his candle).
- Park Jung-sik (Hankyoreh) for his humor : an adjuma asleep in front of a TV broadcasting a speech of LEE Myung-bak. The title ? "국민과의 대화" or "Dialog with citizens"....

"국민, 대한민국을 찍다"
("People, take a picture of the Republic of Korea" - 20100416-20100421)
Press Center 1F, 25 Taepyeongno-1-ga, Jung-gu, Seoul, ROK

This exhibition runs only until April 21st so be quick. And if you're tired of politics (frankly, I kind of am), wait until April 27th and a very promising photo exhibition of the streets of Seoul at the Seoul Museum of History, from my favorite Seoul photographer : KIM Gi-chan.


Seoul Village 2010

* see "Korean War : a photo exhibition at Cheonggyecheon"

---

UPDATED 20100520

link to the KIM Gi-chan exhibition, definitely a must.

Photographs

Follow me on Instagram:

- @stephanemot

- @TheSeoulVillage

ADDENDUM 20230226

A few shots from my series 'The People of Seoul' will be exhibited at KOTE's Joseon Salon during the "KOTE Potluck Art Festival 2023":

 

 

20070709 - INITIAL POST

A few memories from Korea :

These pixes are in low resolution because uploading originals would overload this poor website, and in low quality because I'm a poor photographer.

You may prefer great pictures by real photographers. For the forgotten people of Seoul, I recommend KIM Gi-chan, who caught the soul of the city during the sixties and seventies, and naturally CHOI Min-sik, Korea's great master from Busan.

Seoul Village 2007

ADDENDUM 201307: YouTube and Vimeo channels

. watch Seoul Village channel on YouTube
. watch my channel on Vimeo

Also:
- Noonbit Editions (in Korean only).
- Seoul Village's pixes at my place in that other village, Snapvillage.com, but that space is about to close
- Some pictures from Seoul come as illustrations for my book "dragedies", including the one in the header : "Consommables" ("consummables").