Ihwa residents want to remove murals

Visitors take photos in front of a mural at Ihwa Mural Village in central Seoul. As hundreds of domestic and foreign tourists come to see the murals, residents complain of the noise they make and the wastes they leave behind.

By Lee Kyung-min

Ihwa Mural Village in Ihwa-dong, central Seoul, has been one of the city's must-visit tourist attractions in recent years.

Dozens of visitors ― or hundreds on weekends ― come to the hillside village, which had been an ordinary underdeveloped slum until recent years when artists transformed it by painting murals on various walls in the area. They take photos in front of various murals, wandering here and there through the hillside village to look for paintings.

Not all residents, however, are happy with the flood of tourists, expressing annoyance with visitors making noise, littering and often scribbling on the walls around the murals.

The situation has gotten worse recently as spring came and the number of tourists spiked accordingly, according to a resident.

"I heard many people living here complaining that they cannot stay indoors without wearing earplugs or headphones," he said. "It gets even more crowded on weekends."

Unable to bear the noise and disturbance, five residents covered up some of the murals with gray paint.

Police booked the five people without physical detention for defacing two murals near their homes, Friday.

Officials at the Hyehwa Police Station said the five may face charges of destroying property for causing damage to the city's iconic tourist sightseeing destination.

Of the five, three are suspected of pouring gray paint on a concrete staircase painted with sunflowers at around 8 p.m. on April 15. The remaining two allegedly poured paint on stairs decorated with fish at 12:10 a.m. on April 24.

A sign urges visitors to Ihwa Mural Village not to be loud for the sake of residents.
/ Korea Times photos by Lee Kyung-min

The costs to repaint the stairs are estimated at some 42 million won ($36,000) and 10 million won, respectively, according to police.

The booking followed complaints by the Jongno District Office and the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism demanding an investigation.

The five residents told police that they destroyed the paintings after the district office's years-long indifference to their complaints of the noise and disturbances.

"One of the men lives right next to the stairs," an artist living in the village, 61, said.

"He said he was constantly bothered by the noises tourists made, laughing, shouting and running around until past midnight," he added.

Repainting the walls is not likely for the time being, as the murals and paintings were made by art professors and volunteering college students under a ministry project in 2006.

"We don't have the authority to decide whether to repaint the stairs," an official from the district office said.

"We will hold hearings and discussions to give those affected the chance to address their issues, and reach an agreement. We will also seek cooperation of the culture ministry."

The murals began to appear in 2006 as the ministry launched a project to develop the poor neighborhood as a tourist landmark with a unique atmosphere, allocating a budget of 250 million won.

A total of 68 experts and painters offered consultations on the project to come up with design ideas, and 70 paintings were drawn there on walls, stairs and the exteriors of some houses.

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