The Buk Seoul Museum of Art finally opened its doors to the public on September 24. This museum in Jugye-dong, Nowon-gu중계동 노원구 in the northeastern part of Seoul is the city’s fourth municipal art museum. The other three are the main Seoul Museum of Art in Seosomun서소문 in western Seoul, the Nam Seoul Annex Building of Seoul Museum of Art in the southern part of the city, and the Gyeonghuigung Annex Building in downtown. The northeastern part of Seoul may have remained rather inconspicuous, lacking high-end properties or flashy young crowds, but the area has always had strong cultural potential, with many working artists living in the district and its relatively undisturbed natural environment. The neighborhood’s lack of cultural facilities for its residents was finally made up by the opening of the Buk Seoul Museum of Art last month. Here’s the museum’s director Choi Seung-hoon최승훈.

This area has huge potential. A city-managed art museum can develop many programs for the local community. There are a number of artists living and working in the northeastern part of Seoul, but they have not been noticed much by the public. Now they have a venue where they can showcase their artistic visions. Also, this area is historically significant and as the saying goes, culture is conceived in history. So the area has the unrealized potential to impart great cultural influences to other parts of the city, and the new museum is going to help the community realize that potential.

Located in a park adjacent to an apartment complex, the museum is designed to blend in with the surrounding landscape, appearing non-intrusive with its grassy exterior. There is also a path from the nearby subway station that naturally leads to the museum.

The museum is located between Junggye and Hagye Stations of subway line 7, more accurately inside the Rattan Park near an apartment complex. Museum operators often say that they want a museum to be a resident-friendly place and to bring art closer to the public, but that is not easy to achieve. Art museums haven’t been that accessible to local residents. But the Buk Seoul Museum of Art is readily approachable, located in a park where people can drop by during their afternoon strolls. People can easily see the exhibitions and programs we have and they may even come inside to enjoy them. Our museum is designed to blend seamlessly like this with the lives of local residents.

The Buk Seoul Museum of Art underwent five years of preparation before opening in late September. Featuring three underground and three aboveground floors over an area of more than 17,000 square meters, when seen from above, the museum resembles two books stacked neatly on a desk. The building is classy and unpretentious, blending well with the surroundings. It even won the grand prize in a city-sponsored architectural contest this year. The museum itself is a work of art. Since the opening of Dream Forest and an art center inside the forest in 2009, and the recent opening of the Buk Seoul Museum of Art, the northern part of Seoul, which used to be cluttered with apartments and cram schools, has undergone a makeover. It has now become an emerging cultural and artistic hub.
Even though northeastern Seoul was endowed with magnificent natural surroundings, its mountains and forests have been dwarfed by the clusters of tall, gray apartment buildings. The Buk Seoul Museum of Art is built in the shape of a small hill in order to recreate the beautiful Surak수락 and Buram불암 Mountains nearby and for the greenness of the park to continue flawlessly to the museum. The lower two floors of the museum house a gallery and large exhibition halls. Here’s the museum’s curator Kim Hye-jin to explain more.

The museum is divided into four themed spaces – a children’s gallery, a photo gallery, and a pair of exhibition halls. Most of the collections here are from the Seoul Museum of Art. For the inaugural exhibitions of our museum we are holding “SEOULscape,” a photo exhibition on the capital city, and “I Love Seoul” for children. The two exhibition halls feature our contemporary and modern art collections from the 70s. The SEOULscape photo exhibition shows how various artists view the capital city and gives us a chance to rediscover the city we live in.

The lobby and first-floor exhibition hall mainly house paintings, sculptures, and media art pieces, and the second floor features the masterpieces of illustrious contemporary artists. SEOULscape, exhibited in the photo gallery, offers varying perspectives on Seoul from 18 photographers.

The most interesting corner of the Buk Seoul Museum of Art is the children’s gallery located in the basement. Be sure to look up when you enter the children’s gallery because the ceiling is decorated with colorful mobiles made of plastic bags. Here’s Museum Director Choi Seung-hoon again.

The plastic bag mobiles are getting great responses. When the balloons move they look like a living organism. The balloons are inflated and deflated in unison by the fans installed above, creating the effect of a sea creature swimming underwater.

The slowly moving plastic bags appear to beckon young visitors to come inside. This mobile artwork is by Lee Byung-chan and titled “Laputa.” The plastic bags in pastel pink, yellow, light green, sky blue, and white are arranged to look as if they are a living, breathing creature. Befitting its title “Laputa” taken from the flying island featured in the book “Gulliver’s Travels,” the display of moving balloons stimulates the imagination of children.

In addition to “Laputa,” the children’s gallery presents the late video artist Paik Nam-june’s installation piece inspired by Sungnyemun, Korea’s National Treasure No.1 and “I Love Seoul,” an exhibition of photos and videos of Seoul. Here’s the museum’s curator Kim Hye-jin again.

In 2001 we purchased Paik Nam-june’s piece called “Marketplace,” which is displayed for the first time in our museum. There is also a video of artist Park June-bum’s “Making Apartment” and a number of watercolor pieces of everyday scenes from our homes, playgrounds, and important landmarks in Seoul such as Namdaemun and Junggu중구. We selected these works so that children can see how the city they live in was created.

In a corner of the children’s gallery called “Participation,” large blocks painted in yellow and blue invite children to play with them and try their hands at installation art. An intriguing tree stands in one corner of the gallery, which is part of the Reverse-Rebirth Project. Here’s the museum’s curator Kim Hye-jin to explain more.

We had kicked off a promotion campaign for local residents before the museum’s opening. For one week we asked them to bring in old, recyclable goods from their homes and those materials were used to make this tree. During this process residents got interested in our museum and they willingly took part in the project.

The tree project helped somewhat satisfy the cultural and artistic urges of local residents. This tree is quite meaningful for the Buk Seoul Museum of Art which strives to become more accessible to the local community and promote communication and participation.

The four municipal art museums in Seoul each have distinct characteristics. The main Seoul Museum of Art in Seosomun is the center of the museum network’s effort to become a world-class museum. The Nam Seoul Museum of Art is devoted to handicrafts and design, while the Gyeonghuigung Auxiliary’s main job is space rental for exhibitions. Meanwhile, the Buk Seoul Museum of Art is a public art complex that focuses on community and to fulfill its function, the museum provides a wide range of free programs and lectures for local citizens.

Our purpose is to become a communal art complex, so we provide an array of art programs for people of various walks of life. There are courses on museum tour guide training, the overview of modern art, photography, and other art and cultural topics. We also have oil painting, ink painting, and sculpture classes. We’re planning to provide programs that are linked to exhibitions in progress. For instance, we have a class for children with architect Kook Hyoung-gul, who designed this museum, and other lectures by the artists whose works are featured in our museum.

Class participation is growing, as people realize that they can gain information and knowledge about art from their community museum. It is a chance for people who had always thought that art was too difficult to just drop by in the middle of their walk through the park and get familiar with art.

The classes are free, so people are taking various courses. There are lots of programs for all kinds of people, from teenagers and elementary school students to homemakers. It helps us a lot to appreciate art. Where can a homemaker get a chance to hear an artist’s talk? It helps us understand the artwork and change our perspectives.

The Buk Seoul Museum of Art made a tremendous effort to reach out to the community. Perhaps that’s why more and more people visit the museum. Here’s Museum Director Choi Seung-hoon.

Art is about moving people’s hearts. Just looking at artwork wouldn’t be satisfying. Instead art should make people realize something new and different about themselves. That’s why people should be able to enjoy the works in a relaxed and pleasant setting. People come to our museum for many reasons. Some even think this is a children’s playground.

There is another place in northern Seoul where culture and nature can be enjoyed at the same time. It’s Dream Forest located in Beon-dong번동 in Gangbuk-gu강북구. Here’s Dream Forest’s operation team manager, Mr. Lee Je-heung이제흥.

Dream Forest opened on October 17, 2009, so that makes it a full four years in operation. Since the northern parts of the city lacked cultural and artistic facilities compared to the southern areas, the district office decided to create a big park. Dream Forest was built on the site where a closed-down amusement park used to have its pool and ice rink.

Dream Forest was built on the 660-thousand-square-meter site of Dream Land. The park has a grassy plaza twice the size of Seoul Plaza, an artificial waterfall, a pond, a gazebo, and many rest areas. There is even a concert hall that doubles as an art center, a quality restaurant, a book café, and an observatory where visitors can have a spectacular view of northern Seoul. The hottest spot in the park is the observatory. Here’s Mr. Lee Je-heung to tell us more.

We had an inclined elevator installed earlier than the one for Mt. Nam in downtown Seoul. The observatory can be reached after a 150-meter elevator ride. You can see as far as Mt. Nam from up there, not to mention all the major mountains to the north of the Han River. It offers a magnificent view of the park and the city.

Dream Forest’s art center features a variety of concerts and exhibitions year round. The Sang Sang Tok Tok상상톡톡 Gallery which opened in 2010 is a favorite destination for family outings. The two-story gallery is designed to stimulate children’s imagination and creativity by allowing them to immerse themselves in art and nature.

The sound of children’s laughter fills the Sang Sang Tok Tok Gallery. These children, who rarely got to play outside and get their hands dirty, now run barefoot and roll around in the sand and make imaginative things out of the clay. Their bright smiles show how happy they are to be one with nature.

The opening of the Buk Seoul Museum of Art transformed the city’s culturally impoverished northeastern region into a new culture and arts center. We see a brighter future for the area, as the museum focuses on interactions and communication between artists and local residents. The Buk Seoul Museum of Art will certainly fulfill its role as the community’s cultural heart.

That concludes today’s Trend Korea. This is Sean Lim signing off. Thank you and good bye.