South Korea’s ‘Floating Museum’ to Set Sail in May

Yukinori Yanagi b. 1959, Japan Follow +

South Korea’s first floating museum opens its doors in May with a unique design by Japanese artist Yukinori Yanagi aimed at mirroring the surrounding environment of the coastal Shinan County.

Featuring seven cube-shaped structures with five exhibition halls, the museum will showcase works exploring the history and cultural narratives of the Korean Peninsula.

Yanagi described the mirrored cubes as ‘creating a dreamlike quality, disorienting place and time through their multiple reflections’.

The museum is part of a multi-island spanning initiative to bring publicly funded art to Shinan County, which has also featured work by James Turrell on Nodae Island, Olafur Eliasson on Docho Island, and Antony Gormley on Bigeum Island.

The 2019 opening of the 1004 Bridge—providing access that was previously only possible by boat—has supported development in the region, which had its maritime significance to Korean history confirmed by the discovery of a 14th-century shipwreck in 1976.

The archipelago’s ongoing art project is hoped to attract tourism and turn around flagging economic prospects caused by a declining local population.

Yanagi’s work is set to feature at Milan‘s Pirelli HangarBicocca in March with an exhibit showcasing key works from the 1990s to the present. —[O]

Main image: Exterior view of FLOATING MUSEUM (tentative name), Shinan County, South Korea. Design: YANAGI + ART BASE. Courtesy YANAGI + ART BASE.