Hunminjeongeum: Acoustic House
ITP Faculty Yeseul Song opened a commissioned exhibition consisting of three site-specific installations for Hunminjeongeum, the most important national treasure in South Korea. She is the only contemporary artist in the inaugural exhibition at Kansong Art Museum Daegu (a new location of Kansong) in South Korea. Kansong Art Museum, originally located in Seoul, is the first private museum in South Korea and historically important.
The exhibition <Hunminjeongeum: Acoustic House> strives to rediscover the modern relevance of Kansong’s notable collection piece, the Haerye edition of Hunminjeongeum in collaboration. For the benefit of the illiterate populace, King Sejong created Hunminjeongeum, an easy-to-use writing system focusing on the phonetic structure and principles of nature, and compiled these principles into the Haerye edition of Hunminjeongeum for wide distribution. Song’s project started by inviting citizens to read aloud the Haerye edition of Hunminjeongeum. The exhibition presents the voices recording the Hunminjeongeum of individuals from Daegu and other regions and their unique stories tied to Hangul. As an artist who uses technology and non-visual senses while fostering audience engagement in her creative process, Yeseul Song showcases three commissioned site-specific artworks composed with these voices and stories. Let the artworks, unfolded in space and built with sounds, evoke anew the devotion of King Sejong to his people.
The exhibition consists of People’s Walk to Hunminjeongeum (2-channel sound installation and spatial design), Hunminjeongeum Chorus (16-channel immersive sound installation and spatial design), and The Story of: Hunminjeongeum Chorus (Wall projection). The exhibition is open until May 25, 2025.
Exhibition page: https://kansong.org/daegu/index.do?menu_id=00005201
Video (with English subtitles) about the project: https://youtu.be/p9ivplD0wAE?si=B0p8FQQ1cvPbe6dO
