Take a walk through modern history at Korean Rhapsody
By Kwon Mee-yoo
The dynamic history of 20th-century Korea has inspired a museum exhibition, featuring some 80 artworks in various forms ranging from Japanese “ukiyoe” and paintings from the period to contemporary media art.
“Korean Rhapsody: A Montage of History and Memory,” ongoing at the Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, in Hannam-dong, Seoul, sheds new light on the country’s modern history with a creative fresh perspective.
“Koreans miss places where memories were made and this is related to social amnesia,” Lee Joon, deputy director of Leeum, said. “The contemporary history of Korea embodies both the past as well as the present, so we placed 100-year-old works next to contemporary artists’ work, juxtaposing our histories side-by-side.”
Seemingly odd matches of old and new works direct the viewer’s attention to Korea’s tumultuous past.
The exhibition is presented in two sections. The Black Box of Leeum hosts the first part in “Symbols of Modernity,” portraying the time from when ports were opened to foreigners to when Korea was liberated from Japan in 1945¬ .
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Mar 18, 2011By Kwon Mee-yoo