'Room of quiet contemplation' designs space for viewers to reflect on 'thinking Bodhisattvas'

Two gilt-bronze pensive or "thinking Bodhisattva" statues from the 6th and 7th centuries are seen in the permanent exhibition titled, "Room of Quiet Contemplation," at the National Museum of Korea, Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap

By Park Ji-won

There are many ways to enjoy pieces in a museum, but one normally starts with reading the explanatory text written at the entrance of the exhibition hall and then the texts next to the individual works. These texts may be informative and enable us to learn about the historical context of the pieces, but sometimes they fail to give us room to take a moment to contemplate their existence or to reflect on ourselves.

The National Museum of Korea's (NMK) new permanent exhibition breaks these norms of exhibition design and lets visitors immerse themselves in meditation in front of two gilt-bronze pensive or "thinking Bodhisattva" statues in a minimalist way. The two statues are national treasures made in the 6th century and 7th century, respectively, during the Three Kingdoms period, which existed from 57 B.C. to 668 A.D.

Titled "Room of Quiet Contemplation," the exhibition, which opened to the public on Friday, displays the pieces together for the fourth time in the museum's history, following in the years 1986, 2004 and 2015, in an exhibition hall specially designed by architect Choi Wook of ONE O ONE architects.

The permanent exhibition, titled, "Room of Quiet Contemplation," at the National Museum of Korea / Courtesy of ONE O ONE architects

The exhibition starts with a dark corridor, where visitors first encounter a media art projection titled, "Cycle," by French filmmaker Jean-Julien Pous, which is a black-and-white, 5-minute video repeatedly showing objects and materials near us, like water and the stars in the universe. While watching the video, visitors are given the time to get used to the darkness so as to be able to see the statues coming next.

The room displaying the thinking Bodhisattva statues is intentionally tilted 1 degree, so that visitors naturally need to slow their steps to climb toward the statues, at which point they can enjoy a sense of calm. The exhibition hall is made out of natural materials such as soil, charcoal, lacquer and cinnamon, which can absorb sounds, making the space noise-proof and giving visitors the feeling of a connection to nature.

There is no explanatory text; the statues are displayed without glass vitrines, while the lighting is dim, so that the visitors cannot be bothered by anything external. The visitors can also see the back sides of the statues. Information is provided in Korean, English, Japanese or Mandarin Chinese via QR code.

"Leonardo da Vinci''s 'The Last Supper' focuses on highlighting Jesus at the center via one-point perspective. But the NMK's exhibition avoided that. The thinking Bodhisattva exists in another dimension entirely. Before coming to save human beings, the Bodhisattva is contemplating whether to descend into the human world or not," said Choi Wook, head of ONE O ONE architects.

"The space is similar to a theater, with its 24 meters in diameter, where the visitors can see the statues from any direction … Humans can live about 100 years, but relics survive for a very long period time. We hope that the space provides people with the chance to encounter such relics as if they were living with us, not in the past. I wanted to make a space where people today could encounter these relics, bringing with them their long histories."

Shin So-yeon, the curator of the exhibition, said that the two statues are the same in terms of their style, but have contrasting characteristics.

"The one on the left wears a luxurious ornament on its head. But it wears very simple clothing from the waist down. Meanwhile, the one on the right is very simple on the top, but has delicate draping from the waist down."

Site Map E-paper Subscribe Register LogIn
Site Map E-paper Subscribe Register LogIn