A Hat trick of Museums

As aforementioned, this trip is about hanging with my brother and his wife, and seeing this part of Korea through their eyes, with no other agenda.

But being me, I did do a bit of research before we came.  Well, okay, quite a lot really.  But I only brought 3 pages of notes which is way less then my usual output.  And they have been stashed in our briefcase for 3 days now, meant only to come out if and when we needed to fill time that was loose and hanging away from other social discourse. 

Tuesday morning both Donny and Grace were of and away with other commitments, so I dug out my notes, smoothed the pages and found the lines relating to Museums. 

Of the dozen or so museums of any real import, I had narrowed the choices down to three.  So, which one to see this morning?

The National Museum of Korea, with its impressively large collection of historical artifacts that represent Korean history and culture?  It is the largest museum in Asia  (the 6th in the world), with a particularly rich store of ceramics, for which Korea has been famously known.

Or it could be the Leeum Samsung Museum of Art, designed by Mario Botta, Jean Nouvel, and Rem Koolhaus?  It houses masterpieces of both Western and Korean naissance, and is easily identified by Louise Bourgeois' enormous spider sculture.

And what about the National War Museum, dominantly outlining the 1950-53 Korean War, which could well have become one of the many forgotten wars if it wasn't for the movie and then TV program M*A*S*H*?

It was a lovely sunny day, the War Museum was walkable and free, so off we went to an imposing building littered on the outside with airplanes, helicopters and tanks galore.  I saw a B52 bomber which was satsifying as up to this point I had only drunk them.  The memorial itself is striking, two halves split, which is how the South Koreans see their current situation.  So many of them have family members in the North, felt keenly by a people to whom family is so very important.  But there is a hopefullness that it won't be long before the two Koreas will join together again.  The reunification of Germany is referred to often. 

More touching I think is the statue portraying two brothers who become reunited from the split.

Inside, the museum is split into historical and other elements relating to war, but we focussed our attention on the Korean war exhibits.  Which were excellent.  Many have been updated very recently with some imaginative use of current technology to make the program interactive and interesting. 

There's even a "4D experience". A maximum of fifteen people sit in a small theatre, wearing 3D glasses.  Then a saftey bar slides down over our laps and a film begins.  Suddenly we are a participant in the most important battle of Incheon, placed in the pilot's seat in a plane buzzing down on hostile territory.  As the plane swooped and sailed, the seats we were sitting on shifted forward or back, tilting as the plane turned to make us feel we are in the plane.  Then we became a foot soldier on a small boat dodging bullets as we moved in formation with other such boats towards the coastline. As the boat bobbed and weaved, our seats did too, and a wind machine made us feel we were part of the action.  All very fun.  The other 13 audience members showed their appreciation the way most high school children do everywhere, by giggling, screaming and shouting.

On the main floor at the back is a lovely quiet circle surrounding a fountain, with a large bowl of water almost soundlessly spilling over its edges to a pool below.  Very moving space to remind us we are all connected in remembering past sacrifices and hoping for no more.