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Gyeonghui Palace, one of the five grand palaces of the Chosun Dynasty in Seoul, will serve as a venue for an art exhibition jointly organized by world-renowned Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and Italian luxury fashion label Prada.
It has become a global trend for famous artists to collaborate on shows with high-end fashion companies, but this is the first time such an event will be held in Korea. In October last year, Fendi held a fashion show at the Great Wall of China.
The winner of the 2000 Pritzker Architecture Prize, which is considered the architecture world's Nobel Prize, Koolhaas has completed numerous projects including China's CCTV headquarters in Beijing, which was named one of the 10 Best Architectural Marvels by the U.S. magazine Time last year, the Seattle Public Library and the Leeum Samsung Museum of Art in Seoul.
The architect's keen interest in Korea's cultural heritage helped to decide on the palace as the event's venue. Prada had planned to exhibit the show at Olympic Park, but Koolhaas suggested finding a place where tradition and modernity coexist, and Gyeonghui Palace was chosen.
But the plan hit a snag when the Sungnyemun, a.k.a Namdaemun, the nation's no. 1 national treasure, was destroyed by fire. That incident sparked a public outcry over the failure to protect the nation's cultural assets, leading the Cultural Heritage Administration to oppose the planned show.
The architect, however, didn't give up. He suggested that with the loss of the 600-year-old national treasure, the country should strive to promote the importance of cultural assets to the public through events like art shows. Rumor has it that Koolhas dispatched a team of architects from his office, the Office for Metropolitan Architecture in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, to Korea on several occasions to survey the palace and ask authorities for help.
At this summer's show, which will be open for three months, Koolhaas will install an Asian Pavilion museum with a 939.4 sq.m steel-frame structure whose design can be changed according to the exhibition to be featured. The planned shows include Prada's "Waist Down," which displays skirts in unusual ways like being made in the shape of flowers, and a contemporary art exhibit by non-profit cultural foundation Prada Fondazione, which will also include works by Korean artists.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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