What is behind the curtain? What is behind the camera? Audiences are always curious about these questions, and answers are returned by a number of rehearsing photos or actors’ interviews. Whereas we hardly look into behind the wall of the exhibition. It might be because just the museum is less friendly than the theater. Movies, musicals, and plays are treated as much casual entertainment than the exhibition. Owing to the high ceiling, silent visitors, impassive guards, it may be difficult not to be nervous. However, they are not the only reason why behind-the-wall isn’t at the center of attention. Intentionally or unintentionally, museums conceal untold episodes because of the reality and prejudice; art pieces are complicated to manage, and people regard art as being for sophisticated or elite audiences. In turn, the high psychological wall to art is built, and the physical walls of the museum become more solid. To delightfully smash both walls of itself, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art at Cheongju, shortly called MMCA for short at Cheongju, unlocks its mystery.
At the museum storage, artworks take a rest from tiring audiences and curators; perfect humidity, adequate temperature, complete safety, and anything they need are provided. For these fastidious conditions, museums are unwilling to open it. On the other hand, MMCA at Cheongju discloses to the public. At the same time as people enter the building, an unfamiliar spectacle is stretched out. Visitors can enjoy enormous collections of the national museum, and they pioneer their own appreciation in the blank of bewildering curating. Still, kind explanations about pieces, materials, artists, and history help adventurers not to misunderstand or lose their ways. It’s another joy to view historic artifacts and nature coming through windows together. Simply changing the location of treasures provides an unimaginable perception to guests. Also, Cheongju’s storage has pieces of renowned artists: Baek Namjoon, Niki de Saint Phalle, Lee Bul, and Lee Jung-seob. Narrowing the distance from the masterpieces, people can let the art come into their sights and hearts. Visible storage was first introduced by the Metropolitan Museum of Art that has impeccable fame, gradually becoming a trend. However, intricate qualifications hinder artistic places to realize their dream of obtaining the innovative type of storage. Through huge investment, time, and courage, the MMCA at Cheongju eventually developed into the first museum that has visible storage in Korea.
There’s more to it than that. The museum even invites audiences to a much-sequestered side: The Visible Conservation Science Laboratory. There, researchers study especially oil paintings, organic and inorganic analysis. By building a clear glass wall, the process of recovering and scrutinizing pieces is exhibited, too. The visibility metamorphoses the process itself as an art, and audiences naturally absorb the life of works and workers related to art. It also connotes that citizens support and supervise the preservation of national properties, which can connect to public integrity. The only limitation is the number of people who can enter. If you ardently want to accept an exclusive invitation from the Conservation Science Laboratory, hurry up!
Of course, the highlight of the museum still remains: the exhibition. The NMCA of Cheongju primarily holds quite prolonged exhibitions, which readers are fully eligible to visit. Among them, the most noteworthy one is Art(ificial) Garden, The Border Between Us. The title plays on Korean homonyms ‘Woori’, which means ‘ourselves’ and ‘cage’ together. Curators talk about the human- centered thinking ways and the prospective to consider animals, starting from the current climate crisis and zoonotic contagion. Humankind and animals awkwardly co-exist on the earth. Our vertical relationship is narrowly maintained. We all grow each world; people flourish in cities and civilization, while animals hunt in genuine nature or are dominated by people. Anyhow, humanity and animals need to be accompanied unless we can find another habitable planet. Participating artists submit inventive and sedate works, that connect with the intention of the event. The exhibition presents at Cheongju Special Exhibition Gallery on the fifth floor and outdoors, until 21st, November.
When the MMCA of Cheongju opened, the curator Park Mihwa introduced it by saying “If the traditional museum is a luxury department store, ours will be a familiar wholesales store.” Plus, it is the first branch of the MMCA built outside of the capital region, reusing Cheongju’s historical cigarette factory buildings. The existence itself symbolizes that both the nation and art try to be friends to all citizens. Fortunately, visitors sympathize with their warm intention through looking around open storage, visible lab, and exhibitions. One of the recent guests of the MMCA at Choengju, Lim Dayeong(Class of 18, Department of Culture and Arts Management) also shared her impression. “Open storage and the exhibition erase people’s wariness toward art, which is an irreplaceable charm. Finally, it will lead us to visit here with our own volition.” Art enlivens our lives; a prejudice that museum is challenging and extravagant interrupt art to do so. The MMCA of Cheongju represents the amusing struggles of recent museums to help art to function properly. If you can’t believe the liveness of art and the museum, verify it by visiting!
By Kim Hyeyeong Deputy Editor-in-Chief