The most deceptive museum in Seoul
A good day to ride a dragon / Korea Times photos by Jung Min-ho
Humorous and fantastic, the Trick Eye Museum is an Instagrammer’s paradise
By Jung Min-ho
Do you want to pose for a photo in which you’re riding a dragon or swimming with a shark? There is a place for that in Seoul.
The Trick Eye Museum, situated in a back alley bustling with street vendors peddling food and accessories in the city’s Hongdae (Hongik University) area, brings paintings to life with optical illusions.
Since its establishment in 2012, the museum has been named one of the best Seoul attractions by many travel sites, including TripAdvisor.
Download the museum’s application to see the special effects and take pictures in them. Doing so is a must if you want to fully enjoy the museum experience.
The first thing you will encounter in the museum is a 2-D volcano painting that, through the app, appears with scorching ashes and gases coming out of its crater.
In the next room, you will find yourself in the company of a dragon and a unicorn.
In addition, dozens of paintings throughout the museum feature other creatures and characters, such as a dinosaur breaking into the museum and killer-looking women trying to hurt you.
A fish is about to eat a man.
You can make your photos more interesting by adding your own ideas. In fact, many visitors make funny faces and pose in ways that others would not think of.
“In many other museums or galleries, visitors see signs like ‘Don’t touch’ or ‘No flash.’ But in our museum, they can take photos as they touch the artworks. They are also allowed to turn on the camera flash as long as it doesn’t bother other visitors,” an official said.
The place has become popular among visitors from here and overseas, owing largely to the widespread use of social media, such as Instagram and Facebook, among the increasing number of tourists.
“About half of the visitors are non-Koreans,” said another official who speaks Chinese as her first language.
Following its success in Seoul, the museum opened its branches in Hong Kong and Singapore, which have themselves become success stories.
The museum’s concept originated from “trompe l’oeil,” which is French for “trick of the eye,” an idea that emerged in ancient Greek and Roman times. Trompe l’oeil is an art technique that uses real images to produce optical illusions that portray objects in 3-D.
The technique had been used commercially in Japan, but its popularity there waned.
First-time visitors to Korea may try wearing the hanbok as they walk around the museum. The traditional Korean clothing is available for rent for at the entrance.
After touring the Trick Eye Museum, you can also visit the Ice Museum on the same floor, where you can take photos with beautiful ice sculptures without additional charge.
Welcome to the Love Museum
Adult-only Love Museum
The Love Museum is the first adult-only interactive museum in Seoul.
Located on the upper floor in the same building, the museum presents sexual fantasies through risqué paintings and sculptures that, like those in the Trick Eye Museum, are brought to life with optical illusions. If you are too shy to reveal yourself in your photos, the museum offers a pair of paper glasses to cover a part of your face.
The museum has six galleries that, collectively, are a mix of the contemporary and traditional and the West and Korea: Fun and Sexy, Femme Fatale, Korean Erotic Painting, Erotic Garden, Dream House and Sex Life.
Visitors coming from the Trick Eye Museum can get a discount of 2,000 won ($1.8) in the entrance fee to the Love Museum.