London Korean Links

Covering things Korean in London and beyond since 2006

“Made in Korea” festival in Brussels

The “Made in Korea” festival in Brussels is a big-budget four month perspective of Korea’s arts. Centred around the Centre for Fine Arts, this is a unique opportunity to see some of Korea’s ancient treasures and also some more contemporary visual and performing arts. Definitely worth a trip to Brussels. First, a summary of some … [Read More]

The Sarira Casket

Matthew Jackson describes one of the Buddhist treasures in the Seoul National Museum. Of the few people I have asked who have visited the Seoul National Museum, no one has mentioned the Gameunsa Sarira Casket as the high point of their tour. When I visited the museum myself, even though I was specifically looking out … [Read More]

Saturday documentaries at the KCC

This Saturday there will be a screening of a short film entitled “The History of Gold” at the Korean Cultural Centre at 12pm, 2pm and 4pm. Each screening will last around 30 minutes. Silla people decorate their houses with silk interwoven with golden thread, and use golden plates and cutlery at meals (Arab historian, 10th … [Read More]

Namdaemun before, during and after

First, some pictures of Namdaemun as it used to be:     The YouTube Namdaemun Then and Now group contains loads of more recent, pre-fire, images. Here’s a couple of samples: Next, a YouTube (from MBC) of the fire itself: Some spectacular stills of the fire are on pwalks’ flickr page (HT to Seoul Man … [Read More]

The Namdaemun Gate tragedy

There are some current events which are so unexpected and shocking that the first moment of becoming aware of them is indelibly printed on the memory. It is said that anyone who was adult at the time can remember where they were when they first heard of the death of JFK. I certainly will always … [Read More]

The Leeum Art Gallery, Seoul

A brief walk from Hangangjin subway stop (line 6) near Itaewon is the Leeum Gallery, set up by Samsung. No expense has been spared on the building itself, with prestigious foreign architects engaged to build it, and an impressive collection of artworks. The building itself is very spacious, and has three main sections. Older artworks … [Read More]