In 1961, the Victoria and Albert Museum, one of the world’s leading museums of art and design, held Europe’s first Korean art exhibition. In 1992, the museum officially opened the first Korean gallery in London dedicated to the country’s arts and crafts. Beth McKillop, a senior research fellow at the V&A and its former deputy director and director of collections, orchestrated the opening of the first Korean gallery in London and the building of the Korean art collection. The V&A’s Korean Gallery

Culture Sept. 11, 2016

GWANGJU – The Gwangju Biennale, now in its 11th year, seeks to depart from the typical showcase of large-scale avant-garde art, offering instead philosophical accounts of the society we live in and the future we will soon confront. Instead of wowing visitors with large-scale installations and flashy media works, the biennale this year presents art projects -- more than 250 artworks by 120 artists and teams from 37 countries are on display -- that invite viewers to stand in front of artworks and

Performance Sept. 5, 2016

What were the must-have fashion items in Korea more than a century ago? In the early 1900s, stylish people keen on fashion trends were dubbed “modern girls” and “modern boys,” with Western culture making inroads into Confucian society at the time. Women began to wear Western-style dresses instead of “hanbok,” or Korean traditional costume, and they would hold a parasol in one hand to cover their faces, effectively replacing the skirt-shaped headgear used to conceal their faces in the deeply Conf

Arts & Design Sept. 1, 2016

A 27-year-old student won the top award at Herald Design Tech 2016, a design-meets-technology contest organized by Herald Corp., with a customized font design system that reflects the user’s preferences. Pyo Jun-hee, a visual communication design student at Gachon University won the competition with his interactive font system which allows users to easily change fonts by merely tilting an iPad screen. Pyo received a prize of 3 million won ($2,680). “When you tilt an iPad screen equipped with the

Arts & Design Aug. 31, 2016

A yearlong celebration of Korean culture in France came to an end Tuesday with an awards ceremony in Paris that recognized more than 80 French and Korean cultural figures who took part in the cultural exchanges between the two countries. Korean Culture Minister Kim Jong-deok awarded a total of 88 cultural figures, including Didier Deschamps, head of the Chaillot National Theater.Korea organized more than 200 cultural events at 120 cultural institutions in some 60 cities throughout France from Se

Culture Aug. 30, 2016

Jeong Geum-hyung conducts CPR on a medical mannequin as if the male dummy were in an urgent life-or-death situation. Her body moves in the fast, yet steady, rhythm required for the life-saving action. The scene, however, invokes a rather erotic image to the audience, who watch the artist perform the action nude.“I don’t intend to cause voyeurism here, but it’s just how things turn out in my performance and that puts the audience in a voyeuristic situation,” said Jeong, winner of the 16th Hermes

Performance Aug. 29, 2016

YEONGCHEON, North Gyeongsang Province – Popular wines in Korea are mainly sourced from countries such as France, Italy and Spain, but recently, locally produced Korean wines have been carving out their own share of the market.Korean vineyards started to venture into winemaking in the late 1990s and benefited from an unprecedented wine boom driven by the hit Japanese wine-themed comic “The Drops of God” in the early 2000s.Vineyards on the island of Daebudo on the west coast jumped into winemaking

Food Aug. 26, 2016

Gyeongbokgung is an open museum without relics. Buildings in the palace are missing the furniture, tableware, books, paintings and clothes that used to make it a living space. Instead, these are kept in underground storages at the palace site as the prized collections of the National Palace Museum of Korea. Some 45,000 royal artifacts are housed at the 18 museum underground collection vaults at two different locations within the palace grounds. The artifacts -- including old documents, books, pa

Culture Aug. 23, 2016

A video entitled “Shoes/243.0 MHz” shows shoes floating on the sea off Hokkaido, Japan -- shoes that belonged to passengers of Korean Air 007, which was struck down by a Soviet fighter jet in August 1983. It is among some 300 works that the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea has culled from its extensive collection to celebrate the Gwacheon Museum’s 30th anniversary. The somber scene in the video offers a fresh vantage point from which to look at the tragedy of the Cold War. I

Performance Aug. 22, 2016

The biennial congress of the International Federation of Photographic Art will be held in Korea from Aug. 22-28. The UNESCO-registered body of professional photographers, known as FIAP, an acronym of its French name, will bring together some 400 photographers from 87 member countries to network and showcase major photographs selected from each member country. “The 33th FIAP Congress unites photographers around the world to one place to celebrate photography. I hope the event highlights the impor

Performance Aug. 18, 2016

Seoul (AFP) -- When North Korean defector Choi Sung-Guk decided it was time to go public with his experiences, he avoided the well-trodden “harrowing memoir” route in favor of a cartoon strip. Drawing skills and some online space provided Choi with everything he needed to reach a young Korean-speaking audience that might otherwise have little attention to spare for a 36-year-old escapee from over the border.Choi, who spent eight years making cartoons at Pyongyang’s SEK animation studio, now post

Culture Aug. 17, 2016

Gyeongbokgung, the Joseon era’s main royal palace, will invite visitors to dine at its royal kitchen to experience Joseon kings’ daily meal and walk around the palace at night in September. The new Starlight Tour will run twice a day at 6:30 p.m. and 7:50 p.m. from Sept. 1-17, inviting up to 60 people per tour.The tour will start at the royal kitchen of Sojubang where participants will be served a royal box meal, which is based on the Joseon kings’ typical meal with 12 dishes, but presented in a

Culture Aug. 17, 2016