Nam-Seoul Museum of Art is a branch of Seoul Museum of Art located in Namhyeon-dong Gwanak-gu, the southernmost part of Seoul. The building previously housed the Belgian Consulate and was designated as a cultural property. With over 100 years of rich history, the building itself possesses artistic value.
In order to promulgate its history and value, SeMA presents a permanent exhibition of its architectural archive, titled Evolved Museum: the former Belgian Consulate. The exhibition reframes parts of the previous exhibition held in 2015, SeMA Modern History Project: Evolved Museum: the former Belgian Consulate.
For this exhibition, after his contribution as an invited architectural curator for the former exhibition in 2015, the modern architectural historian, professor Ahn, participates as a co-curator. Furthermore, the exhibition space is reassembled, keeping the original design by One O One Architect and One O One Factory(the exhibition designers for the previous iteration).
Different from the previous iteration, which used three exhibition halls for history and architecture sections, the current exhibition is contained within two exhibition halls. Accordingly, each exhibition space presents different time periods from past to present. In terms of content, the history of the former Belgian Consulate and the architecture of Nam-Seoul Museum of Art will be presented in each space. The section of the exhibition that presents the past is comprised of black and white photographic documentation that shows the history of the building. The section that outlines the present shows the building’s architectural beauty through color photographs and video interviews. The space notably exhibits parts of the plaster pillars and tiles that were left in the museum after its reconstruction.
Along with the archival exhibition, in celebration of the opening of the permanent exhibition, IM Heung-soon’s Nostalgia—a work that reinterprets the history of the museum’s building and its hidden meanings of space and time—is currently on view.
The purpose of this exhibition is to fulfill and respond to the public’s keen interest in architecture. Through the exhibition, we hope that Nam-Seoul Living Arts Museum will become one of the favorite cultural attractions for its citizens.
