Democratization and museum policy in South Korea (original) (raw)
Related papers
Creating Regimes of Value through Curation at the National Museum of Korea
Acta Koreana, 2014
The National Museum of Korea (NMK) is a site for teaching its visitors about the wonders of the Korean past through exhibition of exemplary art works. Through participant-observation in a Korean art history program organized by the NMK, museum visits, an interview with a senior curator, and an analysis of the NMK's self-published book 100 Highlights of the National Museum of Korea, I interrogate the museum's ideology in order to gain a better understanding of the messages about Koreanness communicated to the museum's visitors. I am interested in the curatorial choices made by the museum that may ideologically condition spectators to associate Korean artistic excellence with Buddhism. I combine an analysis of language used in curation of Buddhist art on museum labels and displays, and within the NMK's self-published book of 100 museum highlights, with a discussion that illustrates how the NMK creates new regimes of value in their presentation of Buddhist objects as national heritage.
The National Museum of Korean Contemporary History: A Contested Site of Cultural Memory
European Journal of Korean Studies, 2024
The National Museum of Korean Contemporary History in Seoul was first proposed in 2008 by conservative president Lee Myung-bak (Yi Myŏngbak), and opened its doors in late 2012. Its permanent exhibition was criticized as a manifestation of conservative historical narratives. As a result, once progressives regained power, the museum was remodeled, only to see another partial remodeling after Yoon Suk-yeol (Yun Sŏgyŏl) was inaugurated in 2022. Focusing on 1945-1950, this paper explores how the museum has remained a contested mnemonic site ever since the museum's opening, and aims to visually document the changes made to the permanent exhibition over the past decade.
This paper critiques a recent exhibit at the Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) as a case study to explore the evolving role of museums in the twenty-first century. For the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japan, the NK Project presented oil paintings, propaganda posters and postage stamps from North Korea; photographs of North Korea by non-Koreans; and art installations and videos by South Korean artists with North Korea as the main theme. Taking the celebration of Korean independence as a point of departure, the exhibit explored the contradictions and ambiguities of a divided nation in order to help visitors better understand South Korea’s northern ‘other’. Within the context of the current political environment in South Korea, the paper analyses the NK Project’s effectiveness in furthering SeMA’s stated goals as a ‘post-museum’ and examines how art can foster cross-cultural conversations.
Erasing Difficult History: The Decolonization of Heritage in South Korea
Romanian Journal of Sociological Studies, 2017
This paper explores South Korean heritage practices aimed at erasing the colonial past from the national heritage landscape, in the course of a social movement to uncover the historical truth and create accurate representations of the past. I argue that in the 1990s, the state repudiated historic sites that were perceived as tainted by the colonial rule, because it believed them to materialize a distorted historical narrative. The state-led correction of this narrative aligned the heritage landscape with the rhetoric of colonial resistance and the representation of the nation-state as being perpetually characterized by independence and resistance. The Office of Cultural Properties, the governmental agency dealing with the management of national heritage, identified patrimonial sites that were allegedly tarnished by the colonial past and subverted their importance through various forms of erasure and forgetting. The paper investigates these practices, ranging from renaming sites and demoting the heritage status of monuments, to iconoclastic gestures such as celebrated demolitions of colonial architecture. The analysis of South Korea's treatment of its colonial heritage illustrates the silencing of difficult memories in the process of decolonization, and the central place heritage occupies not only in identity formation, but also in breaking with the past in the course of decolonization.
International Journal of Cultural Policy, 2018
This paper examines Korea's cultural policy in tandem with the Korean Wave. It maps out the vital role of the Korean government in the Korean Wave phenomenon in the midst of the confrontations between neoliberal globalization and developmentalism. It investigates the ways in which Korea has developed the Korean Wave by analysing whether or not neoliberal ideologies have completely altered state developmentalism. More specifically, it studies the major characteristics of each administration between 1993 and 2016 in cultural policy, leading to the theorization of the nation-state in the context of the Korean Wave. Since studies of cultural policy assume that a wide range of policy tools are available to a government in promoting its cultural industries, it examines not only major cultural policy directions driven by each president, but also governmental practices executed at the level of the executive branch, in particular, the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism.
Romanian Journal of Sociological Studies, New Series, 2015
This article discusses the new social, cultural and economic role that open-air museums play, in a post-nationalist period, taking into consideration the Korean Folk Village in Seoul, South Korea and the National Village Museum ‘Dimitrie Gusti’ in Bucharest, Romania. The first approach is to define the role that the two open-air museums played historically, as well as the changes they undergo in recent years. In the context of globalization, culture is redefined in its relationship to economic growth and tourism contribution and the need for museums whose marketing turns the attention towards the visitor. Museums undergo a democratisation process, in the sense that collections became accessible and made interesting for the general public. Although in recent years in Romania it is considered that there is a lack of funding and legislation regarding cultural patrimony, the Village Museum in Bucharest is adapting to the latest evolutions in the patrimonial and cultural sector, remaining one of the most important cultural institutions in Romania. The Korean Folk Village was put in connection with the revival of the Korean economy, a policy aiming to preserve Korean culture by supporting the country’s cultural heritage in the process of building a modern nation-state (Lee, 2011). While the South Korean Folk Village is oriented towards tourism attraction, re-enactment of the past and entertainment, the National Village Museum ‘Dimitrie Gusti’ in Bucharest is rather oriented towards its pedagogical role, its dialogue with the public translating in event organisation.
South Korea Cultural History Between 1960S and 2012
International Journal of Korean Humanities and Social Sciences, 2016
This paper examines the development of South Korean cultural policy from the 1970s to the present. It contextualises South Korean state, culture and its cultural policy within the framework of state developmentalism, so as to understand their dynamics and relationships. A detailed analysis of how the national cultural policy is interpreted and implemented through institutional practices, historically and in its contemporary context shall be made.
SOUTH KOREA CULTURAL HISTORY BETWEEN 1960S AND 2012 15
This paper examines the development of South Korean cultural policy from the 1970s to the present. It contextualises South Korean state, culture and its cultural policy within the framework of state developmentalism, so as to understand their dynamics and relationships. A detailed analysis of how the national cultural policy is interpreted and implemented through institutional practices, historically and in its contemporary context shall be made.