To go with the opening of the KCC’s summer exhibition Korean Funerary Figures: Companions for the Journey to the Other World, the president of the museum which is lending these figures will be giving a talk about her 30 year passion for Kokdu.
Culture and Identity, Kokdu and me: 30 Years of Art Management
DATE & VENUE: Wednesday 11 July 2012, 16.30 / Korean Cultural Centre UK
Speaker: Kim Ock Rang, Director of Kokdu Museum
Her desire to preserve the abandoned Kokdu led Kim to 30 years of systematic collection and study. Her work has assisted in raising awareness of this aspect of Korea’s folklore and now the Kokdu figurines are professionally researched and protected through the Kokdu Museum.
In relation to KCCUK’s summer 2012 exhibition, Korean Funerary Figures: Companions for the Journey to the Other World, Kim Ock Rang will talk about her 30 years of art management ever since she encountered Kokdu. Her mission of ‘recreation of abandoned’ expanded from founding Kokdu Theatre Company and publishing Kokdu Magazine to establishing Dongsoong Art Centre, Ock Rang Culture Foundation, and Kokdu Museum in order to develop Kokdu into various art genres and to support isolated artists. For her, culture is people and their lives itself.
Kim Ock Rang is the founder and also currently president of Kokdu Museum and Dongsoong Art Center, the first private complex cultural space in Korea. Kokdu Museum which was founded in 2010 has about 20 thousand collections of Kokdu, the Korean traditional wood carving, and shows varied exhibitions, educations, products, and publications based on Kokdu.
The Kokdu figurines would have been placed on and around the funeral biers that were used to transport people to their mountain burial sites. These figures offer guidance, wisdom and beauty, helping the deceased on their journey to the other side and offering solace to the mourners.
Pre-booking necessary via [email protected] or phone 0207 004 2600