Things to do in Seoul, South Korea: The Best Museums

Transport: Metro - line 3 to Anguk station. Exit 1 Facility Highlights: Exhibition Space, Museum Archive, Project Gallery Space, Media Theatre, Multipurpose Auditorium, etc. Description: The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea opens a new branch in 2013 at Gimusa, the former Defense Security Command site, built in early 20th century located near Gyeongbokgung at the heart of Seoul. Focusing on the Characteristic of the site that required an underground expansion, the construction plan adopted the madang(yard) concept, successfully integrating the exterior and interior of the building. The Seoul branch brings up a new discourse on the relationship between the public and the museum in an urban space, opening new possibilities for a future-oriented art museum of the twenty-first century. The site of Seoul branch once served as Jongchinbu(Office of Royal Family Affairs of the Joseon Dynasty), which was relocated to adjacent public library in 1981. the new plan includes restoring Jongchinbu to its original site, preserving the former Defense Security Command compound, and thereby establishing a meaningful cultural center that harmoniously embraces the historical Joseon Dynasty and modern Korean history.

Kate Kim Su-Kun’s Space Office building, which occupies an important position in Korea’s contemporary history of architecture, reopens as ARARIO MUSEUM in SPACE on September 1st, 2014. ARARIO MUSEUM is a contemporary art museum, born out of a collection compiled by ARARIO Inc.’s founder Kim Chang-il’s unique taste in and passion for art. ARARIO MUSEUM in SPACE aims to become a central location for cultures and arts where visitors can share and communicate their artistic experiences, by continuously introducing a wide variety of domestic and overseas art works that harbor historical, social, and cultural values, augmenting the historical significance of the existing building with the cultural values of contemporary art. The Arario collection comprises contemporary art works that have been collected over 35 years by the hands of Chairman Kim Chang-il. Chairman Kim, who was mainly focusing on modern and contemporary Korean art works, began to build a systematic collection of domestic and overseas contemporary art pieces with a renewed taste after visiting an exhibit held at The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles in 1981, which left him with a deep impression. He expanded the scope of his collection to Western contemporary art, taking note of UK’s YBAs and Germany’s Leipzig school since 1998, and has been focusing on young artists in China, India, and Southeast Asian after 2000. Now, the collection consists of over 3,700 pieces of contemporary art works from both the East and West. The MUSEUM’s inaugural exhibition, , presents over 200 pieces by 43 artists out of the collection built over the past 30 years. The exhibition will offer an open scope, unlimited to any specific period, country, or media, and introduce works from a wide array of regions including Korea, and Western countries such as the US, UK, and Germany, as well as India, China, and Southeast Asia.