Emperors in Istanbul - National Museum of Korea

Here's an event I certainly won't miss: an exhibition on past empires of Turkey at the National Museum of Korea, featuring works from prestigious institutions (from Istanbul and Ankara: Topkapi, the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, the Archaeological Museum, the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art...)*.

The NMK previously delivered 3 impressive focuses on Egypt, Persia, and the Inca, bringing to Korean audiences treasures never seen before in the region. This time again, an ambitious editorial line, reaching beyond the usual suspects (the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires), towards the Greco-Roman civilization and Phrygia, but also into the Hittite Empire.

I'm glad the SeMA put a brake on blockbuster exhibitions (see "SeMA to block blockbusters"), but I think the NMK is doing a good job at drawing large audiences to its hulk of a museum, and you see many parents and kids pleased to discover more than they expected / came for, growing hunger for more discoveries.

* Civilizations of Turkey, Emperors in Istanbul
20120501-0902
National Museum of Korea
Seobinggo-ro 137 (Yongsan-dong 6-ga 168-6), Seoul 140-026
Website: istanbul2012.co.kr
Tel: 1666-4392

Seoul Village 2012
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UPDATE 20120513
National Museum of Korea No 19 has just been published - see focus p.21
http://www.museum.go.kr/files/upload/ebook/6/vol19.pdf

A National Museum of Korean Contemporary History ???

You probably already know that the US Embassy is supposed to move down to Yongsan around 2013, when the Yongsan Army Base mutates into a central park. But at the same date, its neighbor on Sejongno*, the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, will also have changed its purpose and become the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History.

Whatever that means.

We're quite familiar with musea of "Contemporary Art", but a museum for "Contemporary History"...?

Theoretically, it should cover, if not History as it happens or as it is being written, a period that a significant portion of the population has experienced : in Asia, the term generally covers everything that followed WWII.

But if this Museum will focus on Independance, the boom years, or the fight for democracy, it is also supposed to reach into the late Joseon period and the Japanese Occupation, and into the future. The last few early XXst century survivors won't be around much longer, so curators will soon have to either drop the "Contemporary" part in the title, or whole chunks of their collections. I'm afraid I'd have to wait way too long after my death to see them discard the Hallyu wave section they're planning...

There's also the issue of "cannibalization" with the National Museum...

So I'd rather suggest "National Museum of Modern History", which really echoes the shift from old to new Korea, and encompasses both the past and future. It also puts some distance between the immediate present and its analysis - an analysis always subject to heated controversies, most particularly nowadays**.

As Zhou Enlai answered, when asked about the 1789 French Revolution : "it's too early to tell".

And it's too early to tell if Bae Yong-joon deserves a statue on Sejongno*.

Seoul Village 2010

* sorry, "Sejongdaero"
** mimicking his counterpart at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Korea , the new president of the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, Hyun Byung-chul, has recently been accused of torpedoing his own institution (one third of all commissioners resigned).

SGBSC + KBC : small business & big party

If anyone doubted about the vitality of Seoul's international small business ecosystem and the importance of addressing its specific needs, yesterday's networking event at Min's Club gave the ultimate proof : more than two hundred people buzzed under a delicious night (and next to delicious refreshments) before swarming across the old Insadong residence, trading cards and sharing projects.

"An Evening of New Traditions" was hosted by Seoul Global Business Support Center and Korea Business Central, themselves two booming start-ups : the Seoul Global Center COEX unit opened earlier this year, and Steven S. Bammel's founded his community only one year ago.

I was already impressed by the turnout at KBC's first networking event last June, but the SGBSC clearly brought another dimension (and not only for the shift from "All That Beer" to "all that champagne" !). Seoul Business Agency aims at two events per year, targetting an attendance even 3 times bigger next time. The venue ? The National Museum of Korea.

After all, small business is a national cause, and small businesses deserve a right to think big.

Seoul Village 2010

Seoul Global Business Support Center : global.seoul.go.kr/bizsupport
Korea Business Central : koreabusinesscentral.com

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ADDENDUM 20101108 (video of the event, from KBC)

INCA and other Peruvian civilizations (National Museum of Korea)

Now here is an exhibition you shouldn't miss : a unique display of often striking artifacts from twenty ancient Andean civilizations and nine Peruvian museums. Incas only form the tip of the iceberg because they were the last one, uniting for a rather short period a very large territory before being exterminated by Pizarro & co.

What always puzzles me with pre-columbian art is the paradox between the relative lack of social evolution over centuries, and the apparent absence of norms in arts and crafts, a source for incredible diversity and creativity. I guess it reflects a vision of the World where the laws of nature - even as gods - put politics backstage compared to say in Egypt.

And here, from the most exquisite stone pectoral to the most libertine earthenware, from the most colorful 3,000 year-old fabrics to the most surprising shamanist nurse Barbies, from the cutest llama to the creepiest mask, curators made sure you never have the impression to see twice the same thing. Not all boards are fully translated, but mummies or skulls with multiple trepanations don't require tons of explanations.

Literally a golden opportunity.

INCA - The Great Myth and Mystery of Peruvian Civilization
National Museum of Korea 20091211-20100328
Tel 1588.7862
website : incakorea.co.kr

Seoul Village 2010

PS: maybe this impressive display has something to do with the recent visit of the Peruvian president in Korea. He was so enthusiastic he prolonged his stay. This exhibition won't so go visit it before the end of March !

Monet, Picasso, Rouault, Warhol in Seoul

Michael Jackson + Andy Warhol, Claude Monet + Pablo Picasso... two blockbuster exhibitions will entertain Seoulites during the long winter 2009-2010. Those who want some more fire can also enjoy fauvist George Rouault, or any of the tens of exhibitions running across the capital's museums and galleries, or why not discover "Ancient culture of Uzbekistan" at the National Museum of Korea* (thru September 25, 2010).

Blockbusters work on bankable names and familiar grounds. But when Andy Warhol instals his colorful barnum in Seoul, it goes beyond the MJ / $ / Marilyn / Campbell quartet splashed on the teaser, and reveals more about The Factory and a compulsive collector. This comprehensive retrospective leverages on an earlier exhibition in Paris ("Le grand monde d'Andy Warhol" - Grand Palais - March-July 2009), and on a partnership with The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.

Likewise, Monet and Picasso are only the tip of the Philadelphia Museum of Art iceberg (which roams the Hangang thanks to the Chosun Ilbo). I guess "Renoir and Matisse" would probably draw fewer visitors to the Hangaram Museum. How many will seize the opportunity and pay a visit to Rouault ?

Anyway, Seoulite artistic tastebuds keep being stimulated steadily. And Seoul, which used to be at best an exhibition stopover on the way to or from Tokyo (ie Basquiat in 1997), is now the final destination for avid frequent flyers.

Seoul Village 2009

WHAT: "Monet to Picasso - Masterpieces from the Philadelphia Museum of Art"
WHEN: December 16, 2009 - March 28, 2010
WHERE: Hangaram Art Museum, Seoul Arts Center (Seocho-gu)
PHONE : +82.2.580.1300
WWW: sac.or.kr

WHAT: "Georges Rouault - Le Sacre et le Profane"
WHEN: December 15, 2009 - March 28, 2010
WHERE: Hangaram Art Museum, Seoul Arts Center (Seocho-gu)
PHONE: +82.2.588.8421
WWW: sac.or.kr

WHAT: "Andy Warhol, the Greatest" ("The King of Pop Art, beyond the Era Andy Warhol, the Greatest")
WHEN: December 12, 2009 - April 4, 2010
WHERE: Seoul Museum of Art (Seosomun branch - Jung-gu)
PHONE: +82.2.548.8690
WWW: seoulmoa.seoul.go.kr and warhol.co.kr.

* don't wait until september and visit before March the INCA exhibition in the same museum.

Gustav Klimt at Seoul Arts Center - Pompidou at SeMA

Ten years ago, "major" exhibitions in Seoul featuring big names from the past would propose a couple of works by the Great Master submerged by flocks of side dishes from relatively unknown and distant relatives.

Nowadays, Seoulites can enjoy simultaneously major collections with consistant editorial lines from the Pompidou Center at the SeMA and from Gustav Klimt at the Seoul Arts Center*. They can and they do : in spite of their relatively high entrance fees the shows are drawing masses of visitors not necessarily used to this kind of entertainment.

Seoul has definitely become an international art hub well beyond its national treasures and its traditional position on the contemporary art scene, leveraging on new landmarks (National Museum, Leeum**...), but also on stronger ties with fellow Asian countries (ie always something stimulating to discover at the National Museum in Yongsan), as well as with new European partners (ie for the Monet exhibition a couple of years ago, Pompidou and Vienna today).

I bump into Klimt every now and then, and each time from a closer range. Now we've met in my three favorite cities : in NYC a quarter of a century ago ("Vienna 1900: Art, Architecture & Design" - MOMA 1986), Vienna was the star, in Paris more recently ("Vienne 1900" - Grand Palais 2005), the focus was on four artists (Klimt, Schiele, Moser, and Kokoschka), but today in Seoul, Gustav rules the show.

"Gustav Klimt in Korea 2009" justifies its name : the artist is there, drawing a stimulating map of his own life and mind, displaying a collection of beautiful portraits, meeting a new public hungry for change in another young century.

I still prefer Egon Schiele, and still wonder how far he would have gone if the Spanish Flu didn't claim him that early... But that's another story.

Seoul, as a young and promising art center, is also threatened by a global menace, and already feeling the pinch of the crisis (galleries are struggling, auctions slumping, and I'm not sure the next KIAF will be as great as the 2008 edition). But it shall overcome, because this city has embraced art for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer.

I haven't made up mind mind on the "better or worse" dimension of Rem Koolhaas' shapeshifting of an installation under construction on the Gyeonghuigung's lawn. It keeps evolving each time I look through my windows. First came the massive blocks, then those giant pivoting steel PlayStation buttons, and now this screen covering the exhibition space until its inauguration (April 25th)... But as far as the "richer or poorer" dimension is concerned, the name could be a clue : when a "Prada Transformer" is coming to town, you know the era of art hype is not totally over.


* hurry up for Pompom :
. "Centre Georges Pompidou Exhibition "Heaven for Artists""(Seoul Museum of Art - 20081222 - 20090322)
. "Gustav Klimt in Korea 2009" - SAC / Hangaram Art Museum (20090202-0515)
** see my blogule (French version) : "Leeum ad vitam aeternam"

National Museum of Korea indeed

The first time I visited Korea's National Museum, it was in late 1991, halfway during its stay in the former Japanese General Government Building that used to hide Gwanghwamun.

Back then, Yongsan Army Base was still a mostly empty space, and the Dragon Hill the highest and ugliest building around. The Yongsan Family Park was yet to be opened (1992), the stalinicoid War Memorial extension to be erected (1994), and the new museum to be inaugurated (2005).

What struck me as I first discovered this massive monolith in 2005 was the size and the dullness of the architecture. But the collections were offered a much better display, with a priority on pedagogy and chronology. Not very creative : a little bit like at the Incheon Airport, you know at a glance which gate will lead you to your destination.

Pedagogy is one thing, propaganda another. And I don't like the political tone this museum seems to be taking these days.

The ROK is celebrating its 60th anniversary and an exhibition on the national flag makes sense. And I was not surprised to notice a dramatic change in the place devoted to the Goguryo era, but what to think of the comments on Dokdo in the new and improved map section ?

The other day, at the Tokyo National Museum, I felt the same unease (ie chronologies that could have been written by Shinichi Fujimura), but not at the same scale.

I hope that what used to be National Musea won't turn into Nationalist Fora ad nausea.

Anyway, the place is always worth the visit :

National Museum of Korea (국립중앙박물관)

135 Seobinggo-ro, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, ROK

Tel +82.2.2077.9000 - website : museum.go.kr

"Taegukgi" exhibition : from 20080814 to 20081119

Sejongno

Seoul - Jongno-gu - Sejongno
Photo : "Sejongno Caricatures" (Copyright Stephane MOT 2006)

When I first came to Seoul, pedestrians were basically parasites tolerated in a city embracing the cult of Car Almighty. New cars kept piling up at the rate of 400 per day, and I would witness a major crash every other day. Needless to say I could spread thick traffic jam on my toast anytime, not only for breakfast.

Back then, Sejongno (downtown's central axis) was a highway paved with ugly monuments built during the Japanese occupation, but guarded by the statue of the local hero, Admiral Yi Sun-sin. Seoul Station, City Hall et al are still standing, but the country has mercifully removed the massive horror deliberately erected to hide the Gyeongbokgung and destroy the beautiful Bukansan perspective. The National Museum's great collections were offered a (slightly) better shell in Yongsan.

In a relatively near future, passers-by should be able to walk peacefully across the stream (right now, the safest way to survive the walk from one river to the other is to go through the underground maze). Traffic will be limited to two times two lanes ; I just saw the first drafts of restoration projects and I wonder when these brilliant architects will consider building things meant to last over a few years. For Gimchi's sake, something nice can be done at the core of this city. You want to enjoy your walk from the palaces to Insadong.

*

I had just been a Seoulite for a couple of days and was going out for lunch behind the Kyobo Building with colleagues from the French Embassy, when I felt something pass just inches from my head - then I saw a policeman dodge the bullet... We were in the dead middle of a war... the mother of all snowball battles : maybe a hundred police and military playing like kids, laughing their masks off.

Our offices were next to the US Embassy* and if you like to see uniforms, that's the place to be. The most impressive line up of policemen I ever saw was for the visit of George H. W. Bush (the Elder, a.k.a. 41) : one man posted every meter for a couple of miles, all the way from the Gyeongbokgung to Samgakji Station. No wonder Dubya's Dad got a little bit dizzling later that day.



200706

* at the Leema Building - the Economic Mission moved to Gangnam a few months later.