We went to the Seoul Art Museum (sema.seoul.go.kr/global/eindex.jsp) today. It’s over by City Hall, by the side of the Deoksugung Palace, on one of the charming streets back there (to be clear: there are only 2 or 3 streets).
The museum is in the old Supreme Court building, dating from the early 30’s, but when it was renovated to be the museum, they found structural damage… the only part that remains is the front facade. In a way, that’s good as the interior has been custom built as a museum (though I do wonder what the interior was like…). There are actually 4 SEMA locations in Seoul (this being the central location), including a “residency”, a “public arts complex” and a “living arts museum”. Have to check out that last one of these days!
As far as I could tell, there were only temporary exhibit halls, but very well laid out, although their brochure suggests otherwise (maybe at the other locations?). We saw “Universal Studios”, works by non-Korean artists who had been / are living in Korea, which I really like.
The “Malfunction Library” & the third exhibit that we saw didn’t do much for me, except for an installation that was basically recordings of choral pieces written in part by computer, for 7- or 12- singers, tied into the artist’s time spent living in Kuwait (as a child, I think). While computer generated music is the kind of thing I’d expect to loath, it was really interesting & I enjoyed the explanation of the process & the music (!) a lot.
The museum has 3 levels, with large empty spaces both at the front and in the middle of the building, which gives a good view of a somewhat bizarre mural, reminiscent of some “outsider art” & also of Little Nemo, above the cafe. I bought a lovely green tie in the shop (which, not surprisingly, had nothing connected to any of the exhibits that we saw). The photo to the left is a panorama.

The walkway up from the street was something of a sculpture garden.
Afterwards, we went for a stroll and had a bite of lunch at Giljy, the restaurant/cafe at the Jeongdong Theatre – which I’d not heard of but definitely have to go to! It’s traditional Korean theatre, currently having a open run of “Miso: Baebijang-jeon“, which is based on a satirical novel from the late Joseon period (so, what? 1800’s probably). Miso been adapted for “Korean traditional movements, sounds, and theatrical devices”. The plot summary was reminiscent of that old Danny Kaye movie “The Inspector General” or maybe some old comedy of manners. Something to look forward to!

Lunch itself at Gilgy was very good — my salad niçoise was both a bit original (always risky) and very good. A had a large and very good squid started, and That Girl, Miss F., had a risotto. Good choices all around, and a nice atmosphere. Conclusion: Not a lot of parking around there (we parked in the museum), but otherwise a strong recommendation, particularly if going to the museum or the theatre.
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in the Universal Studio exhibit
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in the Universal Studio exhibit
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in the Malfunction Library exhibit
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Fun House sculptures! I LOVE it!
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