After reading about a museum made entirely out of paper located at Olympic Park we couldn’t think of a better way to spend last Saturday – all we had to do was find the museum!

Walking out of the subway station we spotted a tourist map beside an empty tourist information booth. We looked at the map for a while, which was in both English and Korean (but not as clear as it could have been), before a woman appeared from nowhere and gave us an English guide book and map.

The guide book said that the Olympic Park had been completed in June 1986 to commemorate the 1988 Seoul Olympics. It covers 1.4 million square meters and consists of a vast grassy field, the World Peace Gate, the music fountain and approximately 200 sculptures and art exhibits. Some of which are pictured below.

The guide book says:

Olympic Park is one of the top five most renowned sculpture parks in the world and includes recreations of two famous vestiges from the Baekje period of Korean history the Mong Chon Moat and the Mong Chon fortress.

Six stadiums from large to small are located here and were used during the 1988 Olympic Games. They are now used for various types of performances and sporting events. The promenade around the outer wall of the course is used as a public jogging course.

Heading off into the vast expanse of the park the first thing we saw was Peace Square and the World Peace Gate

The Life in Korea website offered this information about the gate and the paintings on the underneath of the wings.

The imposing steel frame and reinforced iron structure is 24 meters high, 37 meters wide, and 62 meters in length. The structure’s wing-shaped design evokes both beauty and majesty. By bringing together elements of traditional and modern architecture, the architect conveys the images of a leap forward and of ascension. The lower side of the structure’s wing-like ceiling contains paintings of various symbolic forms including a blue dragon, a phoenix, tiger, and turtle.

The painting, done by Paek Geum-nam (a noted painter and professor of Sunggyungwan University), uses the traditional Korean Dancheong pattern, covering the entire area of the wings’ lower part.

Blue and red (symbolic of Korea’s flag, Daeguk) were used as the main colors to represent the concept of Um and Yang (yin/yang), the Oriental symbols representing the two opposites of the universe, as well as the spirit of creativity. Choojag (a spirit shaped as a red phoenix that guards the south), Hyunmoo (a spirit shaped as a black turtle that guards the north), Bakho (a spirit shaped as a white tiger that guards the west), and Cheongrong (a spirit shaped as a blue dragon that guards the east) are the four spirits appearing in the mural paintings. The images of their ascension to heaven signifies life against the body and freedom against spirit, in addition to the dauntlessness and strength of the Korean people.

The peace gate really is huge and the paintins on the wings are very impressive. I had to practically lay on the floor to take the picture above and even then I couldn’t get the whole wing in!

Inside the Peace Gate is the Torch of Peace. This was built on August 31 1988 and is made from an octagonal granite sculpture measuring 4.1m in diameter and 0.75m in height and uses gas for fuel. At the base of the torch the Declaration of Seoul Peace is engraved in Korean, English, and French.

The declaration reads:

All people long to live together peacefully regardless of ideology, race, religion free from the threat of war and violence. By achieving this, we can achieve true happiness in life that all people commonly desire. We the citizens of Seoul declare to make the 24th Summer Olympic Games in Seoul, Korea a true festival of world peace from September 17 – October 2 1988 free from the threat of war, violence and terrorism. Thus, world peace can begin to firmly take roots from this momentous event. This is the royal summons for the people of the world today. This petition of peace signed by citizens from around the world was adopted as the Seoul Peace Declaration on September 12 1988 during the 24th Summer Olympic Games.

In today’s climate of terrorism and with the recent nuclear tests in North Korea the Declaration of Peace certainly gives you something to think about. It is a shame that it was only written 17 years ago and, in some ways, the ideal has already been torn apart by the actions of a few selfish nations – namely America and North Korea!

On the other side of the Peace Gate in Peace Square, and area commonly used for recreational activities, was a festive ice skating rink. After looking at the kids wizzing around we decided to consider ice skating after we’d visited the museum hoping there would be less kids around to show us up.

As we made our way to the museum (details in a separate post) we came across lots of different statues, some more random than others! Pictures below.

After searching the internet I cannot find anymore about this sculpture than it was sculpted by a Korean called Moon-Shin in 1988.

Once again the internet is devoid of information about this piece. I have found out that is was done by the French, the name is given as Cesar! and it was done in 1988.

I did manage to find some information on this piece. The Seoul Olympic Sports Promotion Foundation website had some notes that appear to be written by the Algerian sculptor called Amara Mohand. The English is pretty poor but just about comprehendible. It said:

Exchange ideas emotions establish a dialogue between men that is what I wanted to express in the work in a natural space open toward the exterior. In order to do so I had to give some meaning to the Olympiad of Art in Seoul. It had seemed important to me to think beyond geographical frontiers, linguistic obstacles cultural or political differences. Art remains a privileged means of communication between people this thought has been determinant as my encounter with the Koreans. This is how I was able to make two sculptures resembling two beings who approach each other and discover each other their heads practically resting one against the other to better hear each other like two sculptures who friquent each other in order to enrich their knowledge attentive one to the other trying to establish a meaningful dialogue because to my mind it is through exchange and nearness that the human being can exchange and nearness that the human being can exist realize and surpass himself.

After looking around the museums we headed back to the ice skating rink. After much debate about whether it was good idea considering it was freezing and we were very bound to fall over and end up wet, we decided to go for it.

We were stood inside the rental building looking confused when a very friendly older Korean man, with almost perfect English, came and asked if he could help us. Then totally taking charge of the situation he took us to buy our tickets, got us our skates and even paid for our locker.

The locker was only 500 won (about 30p) but it was very nice of him to pay for it. Some Koreans can be very generous and giving, which is nice, but sometimes Korean generosity can make you feel uncomfortable. It is in our nature to offer to give the money back, but in Korea it is rude to do so! So we offered once and when he declined we dropped it – he didn’t seem offended in any way and later he took some photos of us on the ice (see below).

Getting onto the ice was a nerve racking experience. It had been about nine years since I last donned a pair of ice skates. But we soon got the hang of it and were ambling around in a circle being overtaken by kids that barley reached our knees! And amazingly, despite a few close calls none of us fell over. The pictures below are posed – honest!

After tiring ourselves out on the ice it was time to head home for a good nights sleep so we would be up bright and early ready to explore one of Asia’s biggest herbal medicine markets (post coming shortly) on Sunday.

* Posted by j150vsc on 15/12/2006.