‘Arirang’ exhibition will be put on Japan tour

“Arirang Road,” the exhibition tour, will be held in Tokyo and Osaka in Japan from June to August. / Courtesy of National Folk Museum of Korea

National Folk Museum plans Korea initiatives

“Arirang Road” is among the National Folk Museum of Korea’s most ambitious projects this year, aimed at reaching wider audiences at home and abroad.

The exhibition tour will last from June to August, going to Tokyo and Osaka in Japan to raise international awareness about “Arirang.” “Arirang,” Korea’s folk song, was put on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list in December.
The tour is expected to boost the national pride of Koreans living overseas. After touring Japan, the exhibition will go to the United States in 2014.

“Last year, we held a special exhibition featuring ‘Arirang’ before UNESCO’s final designation of its heritage value. We’re so proud of it. The exhibition was successful. So we are going to take the exhibition to other countries where many Koreans live,” said Cheon Jin-gi, director general of the museum.

Cheon said that Arirang is often synonymous with “Koreanness” especially for those living overseas. “The word first comes to mind when they think about their mother nation. So the exhibition will provide relief to overseas Koreans,” he said.

The National Folk Museum of Korea will launch the “World Material Culture Project” starting with an investigation of denim culture this year. / Korea Times file

Also, the museum will launch the “World Material Culture Project” starting with an investigation of denim culture this year.

Chung Myung-sub, head of the research division at the museum, said that it will cooperate with Daniel Miller, a professor of material culture at University College London, who wrote a book titled “Global Denim” with his colleague Sophie Woodward in 2010.
“We have studied international folk culture for many years but mostly focused on rituals and customs. But from this year we will shed light on the world’s material culture. Denim study will be our first project,” Chung said.

The project, which includes the folklore investigation, collection of the items and exhibition, is based on Miller’s book that widely engages in in-depth analysis of the textile’s anthropological perspectives.

“We will focus on its weaving methods and the evolvement into a fashion item. Denim is a crucial part of fabric culture with a long history connected to modern fashion. It will be a fascinating item for both local and foreign visitors,” he said.
As part of cultural exchanges with China, the museum will hold an exhibition featuring the culture of old Beijing from Aug. 28 to Oct. 7 here. Last year, the museum held its first overseas exhibition showing the Joseon’s living culture at Capital Museum in Beijing from Aug. 24 to Sept. 23 to mark the 20th anniversary of opening diplomatic relations between China and Korea.

The museum plans to hold an exhibition featuring “jongga,” head families whose descendants keep time-honored family traditions. It will show the importance of families in modern times through the stories of family heads on Nov. 27 this year to Feb.3 in 2014.

The director emphasized that the museum should focus on storytelling exhibitions rather than ones that show historical artifacts. “We are a folk museum showing the lifestyles of people. We should be a museum where anybody can enjoy the exhibition without explanation of curators because it has to display what is closely related to our lives. Every exhibition should have a story about people living in different times,” he said.

Last year, some 1.6 million foreign tourists came to the museum, a 28 percent rise from the previous year with 1.02 million local visitors, 6.3 percent down from the same period. “We are expecting more foreign tourists this year because we are going to hold various exhibitions appealing to various kinds of visitors,” Cheon said. <The Korea Times/Chung Ah-young>