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| The thematic exhibition at the Old Seoul Station features a retro washing machine, Korea's first homespun car, the Pony, and retro rubber flat shoes and other quotidian relics. / Photos by Lee Hyo-won |
By Lee Hyo-won
Hundreds of thousands of people pass through Seoul Station every day, and the number is expected to peak for the great Chuseok (Thanksgiving) exodus around the corner. But if you take a moment to look around, there stands, quietly, but no less imposingly, the former Seoul Station.
The stately red brick was built between 1922 and 1925, during the height of the Japanese colonial period (1910-45). Called Gyeongseong Station until 1947, it was a critical route for realizing Imperial Japan's grand schemes to infiltrate Mainland China.
This year, Korea feted its 70th Independence Day on Aug. 15. Interestingly enough, it was here, at the old Seoul Station, that Koreans celebrated en masse for the first time 70 years ago.
"Today, Koreans gather in outdoor plazas by Gwanghwamun or City Hall for big events like the World Cup or demonstrations, but back in the day it was the Seoul Station square," said Kim Young-june, appraiser and TV personality known through KBS' long-running antique appraisal show Authentic Masterpiece.
"Liberation was announced through the radio on Aug. 15, 1945 but many didn't know until the next day. So it was on Aug. 16 that scores of Koreans gathered in front of Seoul Station to celebrate," he said.
Ever since more train lines including the KTX bullet trains were set up, commuters have shifted over to the new, glossy station. The old brick building, meanwhile, has been repurposed into an art space like Paris' Musee d'Orsay, and currently features a special exhibition for Korea's big 70th anniversary of liberation.
Repurposing Historic Spaces
It's hard not to admire the architectural details of the building with a clock tower that exemplifies the hallmarks of early 20th-century modern architecture, with sleek chrome and brass polishing and florid art-deco details.
The two-story building served as a platform for passengers, but also had spacious, elegant waiting areas for first and second-class passengers and even more ornate halls for VIPs. Former Presidents Syngman Rhee and Park Chung-hee are known to have used the latter, which are located near the stationmaster's quarterers as passengers were considered guests of the stationmaster.
In 2011, the old station was turned into a multi-purpose cultural space with the name Culture Station Seoul 284, with the number referring to how the station was designated as Historic Site No. 284 in 1981.
Quotidian Relics
Culture Station Seoul 284 is perhaps the most appropriate venue for holding this particular exhibition, the "70th Independence Day Special Exhibition: Love Korea." Featuring some 30,000 historical relics that exemplify everyday Korean life during the past 70 years, it is the largest of its kind.
"About 95 percent of the items are authentic and the rest are either duplicates or imitations," said Sul Sang Whoan, head director of the project organized by KBS and supported by the culture ministry.
It is, moreover, a unique project that was made possible through public donations and loans. "We were able to display only about 10 percent of the items we were able to amass," said Sul. Not surprisingly, the crowd-sponsored project drew over 20,000 visitors in just two weeks since it opened on Aug. 22.
Visitors will be able to walk through a life-size recreation of a typical 1970s Seoul neighborhood, with the "soju" (rice wine) lined mom and pop stores to a retro beauty salon and analogue photo studio. In the next hall are retro items that exemplify various breakthroughs in modern Korean life, from Samyang's instant "ramyeon" noodles that debuted in 1963 to the first kimchi refrigerator and Sambo computer in the early 1980s.
There are also infographics on the wall that explain the origins of the local saying "sell a cow to send your kid to college" (university tuition costs were literally equivalent to the price of a cow, roughly $4,300) as well as various vintage posters from presidential campaigns and political propaganda to national days for catching mice _ in the 1970s the ration of humans to mice was 1:3, and March 25 was designated for killing the crop-eating rodents for hygiene and economic reasons.
The second floor comprises of more thematic spaces that show how everyday household appliances, cars, best-selling books, liquor and fashion trends have evolved. Items are not simply displayed in glass boxes like a typical museum, but in a more creative way through mixed media installations, such as protruding human figurine silhouette screens that double as a mannequin of sorts for showing graphically rendered outfits.
Also captured are the more iconic moments such as the way news was transmitted during the Korean War (1950-53) and a 1983 TV show for reuniting Koreans with separated family members, which ran for a record-breaking 138 days and nearly 453 hours to reunite 10,189 family members. Visitors may also stop in silence before shelves lined with what first appear to be shoeboxes, but are actually lost wartime items retrieved and stored by the National Defense for KIA Recovery and Identification.
On the way out, don't miss the vintage cars on display, such as Korea's pioneering Pony, and free screenings of classic Korean movies, the 1961 drama "A Coachman" and animation "Robot Taekwon V."
The exhibition is open every day until Oct. 3, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. There will be a special night opening until 9 p.m. on Sept. 30. Admission is free of charge.
Docent tours by local volunteers are available twice a day, at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. from Mondays through Fridays, while personal tours can be arranged online. There are also special guided tours by history experts on Tuesdays at 3 p.m. and by KBS broadcasters on Thursdays at 3 p.m.
Culture Station Seoul 284 is located near exit 2 of Seoul Station on subway lines 1 and 4 as well as the airport line. For more information, visit lovekorea.kbs.co.kr (in Korean only).
The writer is former Korea bureau chief of Louise Blouin Media's Blouin Artinfo. She is currently the Seoul correspondent for The Hollywood Reporter and contributes to CNN, WWD and Cathay Pacific's Silkroad magazine.
