Sights, smells and history: Art exhibitions to visit in Seoul this month

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Sights, smells and history: Art exhibitions to visit in Seoul this month

Published: 07 Jan. 2025, 14:12

SHIN MIN-HEE
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

″Le sol_soil″ by Park So-hee, middle, and ″Courtyard″ by Park Ki-won, as part of the ″When All Scenes are in Harmony″ exhibition at Project Space Line. [PROJECT SPACE LINE]

[Museum Listing]

WHEN ALL SCENES ARE IN HARMONY

Project Space Line
Through Feb. 8: For its inaugural exhibition, the Project Space Line presents the duo exhibition of artists Park Ki-won and Park So-hee.

The exhibition contemplates the idea of placelessness, particularly the museum’s identity within the central business district of Gangnam District, southern Seoul.

The two artists juxtaposed each of their artworks with contrasting materials — Park Ki-won with industrial and Park So-hee with botanical elements. Park So-hee’s installations deal with the finitude of life. Her installation of entangled tree branches hung from the ceiling on the first floor acts like a “spontaneous 3-D drawing” but will eventually cease to exist after the exhibition ends, according to Koh Won-seok, director of the Line Cultural Foundation.

Park Ki-won’s pieces offered a philosophical approach toward the concept of space, particularly with a mazelike setting using zinc-plated steel hurdles on the third floor.

“Whenever we are in a specific space, we tend to think about the surrounding parts, like the walls, lighting or furniture,” Koh said. “But space is supposed to be about the emptiness itself, which is why the artist intentionally made the flow of movement complicated, so that the audience would become conscious of what space actually is.”

Project Space Line opened on Nov. 11 and is operated by the Line Cultural Foundation, a subsidiary of Line Construction. The venue is open Tuesdays to Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission is free.

(02) 361-0214
www.projectspaceline.com

″Cross of Christ and the Evangelists, with Reliquary″ (c. 1515-1520) by Valerio Belli [LOTTE MUSEUM OF ART]

THE ART OF JEWELLERY

Lotte Museum of Art
Through March 16: This exhibition is solely comprised of 208 high-end jewelry pieces all owned by the Japanese collector Kazumi Arikawa. Forbes once called him “the man with the most valuable jewelry collection you never knew existed.”

For over four decades, Arikawa amassed more than 500 of these precious gemstone accessories, ranging from necklaces, earrings, tiaras, timepieces and brooches.

“Gemstones are the purest and sturdiest among everything on earth, as they last for generations,” Arikawa said during a recent press conference at the museum. “Their beauty is what proves their essence and spirituality in the history of mankind.”

Arikawa’s collection was previously featured at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, but this marks his first time presenting them on a grand scale at an institution. The pieces on view can be traced back to prehistoric times up until the 1950s, including a bracelet and earrings worn by Queen Victoria (1819-1901) and a rock crystal altar cross made by Valerio Belli circa 1520. The latter is a rare piece from the Italian Renaissance, with Arikawa owning one of the three surviving copies. The others belong to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Vatican Museums in Rome. What makes this cross so priceless is that it is also a reliquary for a fragment reportedly from the cross Jesus Christ himself died on.

The Lotte Museum of Art is open every day from 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tickets are 20,000 won ($14) for adults.

1544-7744
www.lottemuseum.com/en

Installation view of the “Koo Jeong A - Odorama Cities” exhibition at the ARKO Art Center in central Seoul. [ARKO ART CENTER]

KOO JEONG A – ODORAMA CITIES

ARKO Art Center
Through March 23: This is the homecoming exhibition for the Korean Pavilion of the 60th Venice Biennale last year, represented by 57-year-old artist Koo Jeong A.

The word “odorama” in the exhibition’s title is a portmanteau of “odor” and “drama.” Scent has been a recurring motif in Koo’s artworks since 1996, when she first created the installation “Pullover’s Wardrobe,” which emphasized the pungent smell from mothballs placed in a small closet.

For the Venice Biennale exhibition, Koo held a three-month-long global open call targeted toward anyone with ties to Korea, asking the question: “What is your scent memory of Korea?” These included Koreans, Korean adoptees living abroad, dislocated North Koreans and foreign tourists.

Koo collected 600 short stories and then produced 17 distinct scents with the help of professional perfumers, which were dispersed through the Korean Pavilion via sculptures. These scents are supposedly reminiscent of their names, such as “The Scent of Seoul,” “Jangdokdae” (referring to large ceramic jars used to ferment kimchi and various sauces), “Smell of Rice” and “Public Bath.”

For this exhibition, the scents are planted in small wooden Möbius-strip-shaped objects hung from the ceiling in a vast room. Another section, which wasn’t part of the Venice Biennale, is dedicated to the “behind the scenes,” arranged with 120 large banners that have all 600 stories written on them.

“It made sense to work with an artist who dealt with scent,” said Jacob Fabricius, co-artistic director of the Korean Pavilion last year, in a recent press conference. Fabricius, along with co-artistic director Lee Seol-hui, linked the connection with the theme of the Venice Biennale, which was “Foreigners Everywhere.”

“Scent has no borders,” Fabricius continued. “And Koo lives, works and travels everywhere.”

The ARKO Art Center is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. from Tuesdays to Sundays. The exhibition is free.

(02) 760-4850
arko.or.kr

BY SHIN MIN-HEE [[email protected]]