Experience North Korea's Mount Chilbo in Seoul, Cleveland

Korean Heritage

Published: 22 Mar. 2024, 18:29

Experience North Korea's Mount Chilbo in Seoul, Cleveland

“Into the Seven Jeweled Mountain: An Immersive Experience” at Cleveland Museum of Art in Ohio transports viewers to the legendary Mount Chilbo in North Korea. The same immersive exhibition is being held in Seoul at the National Palace Museum of Korea. [CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART]

“The rocks in Mount Chilbo’s valleys are so peculiar that it looks like ghosts carved them,” Lee Jung-hwan, a scholar during the 18th century, wrote in his book from 1751.

Located in the North Hamgyong Province of North Korea, Mount Chilbo was considered the Mount Kumgang of North Hamgyong.

Mount Kumgang — in Kangwon, North Korea — has long been considered the most stunning mountain in all of the Korean Peninsula. And just like Mount Kumgang, Mount Chilbo was a painter's muse. Numerous paintings from the latter part of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) depict Mount Chilbo.

A new exhibition that kicked off both in Korea and in Cleveland, Ohio, offers visitors the chance to immerse themselves in these picturesque mountains, no hiking needed. The Cultural Heritage Administration and the Cleveland Museum of Art kicked off a special exhibition on March 15 titled “Into the Seven Jeweled Mountain: An Immersive Experience,” showcasing a 10-panel folding screen of the “Seven Jeweled Mountain,” or Chilbosando. This folding screen that depicts the famous mountain is the nation's priceless cultural heritage and one of Cleveland Museum’s precious collections. The exhibition is being held at two different locations during the same time period — but there’s only one folding screen.

“Seven Jeweled Mountain,” or Chilbosando, is a 19th-century Korean folding screen depicting the scenery of Mount Chilbo in North Korea. Part of the Korean art collection at the Cleveland Museum of Art, it measures 158.1 centimeters (62.2 inches) tall and 438.2 centimeters wide. [CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART]

As the title suggests, both are immersive exhibitions showcasing different digital renderings of the folding screen.

The panoramic image spreads across the walls at 3 meters (10 feet) high and 15 meters wide, allowing visitors to feel like they’ve been transported into the mountains regardless of which exhibition they go to. The Seoul exhibition at the National Palace Museum of Korea in central Seoul runs until May 26 and the one in Cleveland runs until Sept. 29.

Immersive video projections of Korean heritage have been showcased at exhibitions abroad multiple times, but this is the first time that the subject was an artwork from an overseas museum's collection. The seed for this project was planted when the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation investigated Korean artifacts and artworks abroad and created their digital archive. And it was Sooa Im McCormick, a curator at the Cleveland Museum of Art, who gave it that final push. She joined the stateside museum in 2015 and is primarily responsible for its prestigious Korean art collection.

“I thought the sansuhwa [Korean landscape paintings of mountains and water] would be a good fit for a digital exhibition,” she told the JoongAng Ilbo, an affiliate of the Korea JoongAng Daily, in a recent interview. “Also because Mount Chilbo is in North Korea and is not accessible to most people in the United States or South Korea, I thought it would be meaningful.”

The Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation has made a digital rendering of 13 Korean artworks of the total 400 that are in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Im said. She and the foundation deliberated how to make use of those, and both agreed that an immersive exhibition would be a good option, she added.

The original artwork, “Seven Jeweled Mountain,” is 158.1 centimeters tall and 438.2 centimeters wide. The Cleveland Museum of Art purchased it from a British individual in 1989. The painter is unknown.

A new special exhibition is being held at the Korea Foundation Gallery of the Cleveland Museum of Art starting this month. Titled “From Dreaming to Hiking: Korean Landscape Paintings” and meant to be enjoyed alongside the immersive exhibition of “Seven Jeweled Mountain,” they feature seven pieces of sansuhwa from the Joseon Dynasty. These include “Winter Landscape and Mountain Market, Clear with Rising Mist” (early 16th century), “Snowscape with Figures” (Kim Si, 1584) and “Cityscape of Pyongyang" (Kim Yoon-bo, late 19th century).

Sooa Im McCormick poses at the Korea Foundation Gallery at the Cleveland Museum of Art. [SOOA IM MCCORMICK]

“Jingyeong sansuhwa of the later Joseon is starkly different from the sansuhwa from the early Joseon in that painters of jingyeong sansuhwa actually visited the mountains and water themselves to make those paintings. So I thought the word ‘hiking’ best explains jingyeong sansuhwa for people in the U.S. There are mountains here in Cleveland, too. The digital rendering is 10 minutes long. But my hope is that after the visitors are entertained by the immersive exhibition, they would then appreciate the original artwork.”

Mount Chilbo is 894 meters above sea level and has emerged as a magnet of Joseon scholars and elites since the 16th century. There has been much literature and artwork depicting Mount Chilbo since the mid 17th century. In the 19th century, there was high demand for eight-panel or 10-panel folding screens illustrating Mount Chilbo. This means, researchers say, that many Koreans had visited Mount Chilbo by that time.

Visitors to the "Into the Seven Jeweled Mountain: An Immersive Experience" look at the exhibit on March 15 at the National Palace Museum of Korea in central Seoul. [CULTURAL HERITAGE ADMINISTRATION]

The folding screen in the Cleveland Museum of Art is the epitome of the 200 years of creative work on Mount Chibo, researcher Park Jeong-ae wrote in her research paper in 2015. While the painter is unknown, some suspect that it could be that of the renowned 19th century painter Jo Jung-muk, based on the brushstrokes.

The piece was exhibited in Korea only once, in the 2015 exhibition “Exquisite and Precious: The Splendor of Korean Art” at Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art. Because paintings are more vulnerable to damage, they should not be displayed for the next five years after being displayed in a six-month exhibit, Im explained. That hibernation period was also cause for much contemplation before deciding to hold the current immersive exhibit.

“The museum officials acknowledged that introducing the North Korean natural wonder in the U.S. and also showing it digitally in South Korea in itself illustrates the complexity of the Korean history and situation,” she said.

The Cleveland Museum of Art was founded in 1913, and the Severance family is one of the families that helped make the museum what it is today. The Cleveland natives bestowed their esteemed art collections to the Cleveland Museum of Art. This is also the same Severance family who played a pivotal role in founding the first modern hospital and medical school in Korea.

The museum’s Korean collection includes many Goryeo celadon pieces as well as the "Basin with Inscribed Figures and Calligraphy," which best illustrates the Goryeo craftsmanship and aesthetics, Avatamsaka Sutra No. 78 from 14th century and Amitabha Triad from 15th century.

The inscription written on the upper section of the folding screen's first panel [CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART]

Still the Korea Foundation Gallery is smaller in both the size of the collection and the exhibition space compared to the Chinese and Japanese galleries. The Chinese collection has about 2,400 pieces while the Japanese collection is around 3,100 pieces.

“When I first joined the museum, there was a Japanese curator who was in charge of East Asia, and I assumed an assisting role. But I said it was not ideal that Korean art was treated like part of Japanese art due to the colonial past, and the museum respected my opinion and changed my role,” Im explained.

"There are contemporary art pieces like the work of Yun Hyong-keun and Park Seo-bo, but it is the ancient art and antiquities that are evidence of the kinds of culture and technology Korea has had for thousands of years — until today, when Korea has some of the world’s best semiconductor technologies. I hope to work harder in studying and promoting Korean artwork — they in their own right are Korea’s cultural ambassadors to the world,” she said.

Choi Eung-chon, head of the Cultural Heritage Administration, speaks during the opening of the "Into the Seven Jeweled Mountain: An Immersive Experience" exhibit on March 15 at the National Palace Museum of Korea in central Seoul. [CULTURAL HERITAGE ADMINISTRATION]

“This digital immersive exhibition is the first digital project promoted by the Cultural Heritage Administration and the Overseas Cultural Heritage Foundation for Korean cultural heritages overseas,” CHA head Choi Eung-chon said. “It is very meaningful in that it marks the first time that Korea and the U.S. share the value of Korean cultural heritage together at the same time."

BY KANG HYE-RAN, YIM SEUNG-HYE [yim.seunghye@joongang.co.kr]