Kansong Art Museum showcases digitalized national treasures in DDP media art exhibition

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Kansong Art Museum showcases digitalized national treasures in DDP media art exhibition

Published: 29 Aug. 2024, 14:59 Updated: 29 Aug. 2024, 17:09

SHIN MIN-HEE
shin.minhee@joongang.co.kr

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Installation view of Kansong Art Museum's “When the clouds clear, the moon shines, the wind blows, and the stars shine″ exhibition at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza. [KANSONG ART AND CULTURE FOUNDATION]

The Kansong Art Museum is one of Korea’s biggest private museums, owning an extensive collection of national treasures. Lately, however, the museum has been eyeing the future by transforming these historically significant items into immersive art.

The museum, operated by the Kansong Art and Culture Foundation, is hosting its first immersive media art exhibition, “When the clouds clear, the moon shines, the wind blows, and the stars shine,” at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) in Jung District, central Seoul.
Kansong was founded in 1938 as Korea’s first private art museum and is located in Seongbuk District, central Seoul.

The exhibition features 99 digitalized versions of cultural assets owned by Kansong, like the “Haerye” segment of “Hunminjeongeum” (the book about how hangul was created), landscape paintings of Mount Geumgang and pieces that depict everyday lives during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910).

The show’s title, “When the clouds clear, the moon shines, the wind blows, and the stars shine,” is derived from a calligraphy piece written by Kansong’s founder and famed art collector Chun Hyung-pil (1906-1962).

“The name represents opening a new generation after Korea gained independence and overcame the dark period during Japan’s colonial rule [1910-45],” said Chun In-keon, director of the Kansong Art Museum, during a news conference at the DDP earlier this month.

The exhibition places emphasis on stimulating all five senses, especially the sense of smell. Professional perfumers took part in creating different smells fit for the concept of each section, a prime example being the “Awe Green” fragrance that represents the Joseon era's definition of a beautiful woman, as demonstrated in “Miindo” — a portrait by Sin Yun-bok (1758-1813).

Kansong Art Museum is opening a Daegu branch on Sept. 3 and will display the original copies of the digitalized treasures.

The DDP show marks the beginning of the “Immersive_K” series, which is the foundation’s newly launched media brand that curates digital exhibitions based on the intellectual property of national treasures from the museum’s collection.

Korea is no stranger to media art. In recent years, venues dedicated to immersive art have been opening and expanding one after the other, like the Museum L in Incheon, Bunker des Lumières in Jeju Island, Theatre des Lumières in Gwangjin District, eastern Seoul, and Arte Museum, which has numerous branches all over the world.

Immersive_K stands out among its competitors, as it’s centered on traditional Korean art and history, contrary to many other exhibitions, which focus on Western art.

“The media art IP has been leaning toward the Western world, but we thought, ‘Why not Korean art?’” Chun said. “Our culture boasts excellent IP and we have the technology for it, which is how we came to launch this project.”

“When the clouds clear, the moon shines, the wind blows, and the stars shine” continues until April 30 next year. The exhibition is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day. Tickets are 20,000 won ($14.60) for adults and are available to purchase on Interpark Ticket.

BY SHIN MIN-HEE [shin.minhee@joongang.co.kr]