The faux pas has many questioning the role of Korea’s cultural sites

A photo of one of Korea’s top models, Han Hye-jin, elegantly draped across several chairs in a strapless pink dress inside the Blue House has come under fire in recent weeks — so much so that she decided to turn off the comments. on her Instagram account on August 30, nine days after the photo went public.

What was wrong with the picture?

In the eyes of some netizens and former liberal politicians – many things.

“How can you lie in such an important place wearing that?” A netizen wrote under a news report of Vogue’s latest photo shoot. “It’s a shame,” wrote another netizen. “Don’t they know what they are doing is lowering national dignity?

A local media outlet reported on the matter citing an anonymous fashion insider who said that “the pose reminds people of a gisaeng”, a female entertainer of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), the Korean equivalent of a geisha.

The fashion shoot was part of a photo shoot Han did with Vogue Korea for its September issue. She and a handful of other models participated in a shoot for a special section in the magazine, which consists of 32 photographs that “explore hanbokor traditional Korean clothing, as a fashion item that contains more of the present and the future than the past.”

Vogue Korea photoshoot at the Blue House [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Models in various dresses referencing traditional Korean clothing posed for photos in various corners of the Blue House, including the state guest house known as Yeongbingwan, where Han was posing lying down. The photos were released online on Vogue’s official website and social media on August 22 and were physically released in its September issue. However, Vogue Korea deleted the photos a few days later.

A copy of the magazine was even displayed during a plenary session of the National Assembly’s culture, sports and tourism committee on August 25.

Democratic Party lawmaker Lim Jong-seong holds a copy of Vogue magazine to question the Cultural Heritage Administration about the propriety of a photo shoot at the Blue House during a plenary session of the National Assembly’s culture, sports and tourism committee on August 25. [NEWS1]

“Does this look like hanbok to you?” asked Democratic Party lawmaker Lim Jong-seong as he held a copy of the magazine during the meeting. The question was to refute the Cultural Heritage Administration’s (CHA) explanation that it gave Vogue the green light for the photo shoot inside the Blue House to promote Korea’s cultural heritage – the hanbok and the Blue House. The photoshoot, according to CHA, was organized together with Vogue as part of CHA’s annual “Visit Korean Heritage” campaign, which showcases Korea’s various cultural heritages under 10 different themes.

On August 23, the CHA said it will “strictly enforce standards when granting permission to film and use the Blue House so that its historical and symbolic significance can be enhanced.”

The controversy, however, continued to grow to the point where CHA decided to cancel a Gucci runway show that was scheduled to be held at Gyeongbok Palace in November.

According to a CHA official, CHA and Gucci Korea originally planned to hold the “Gucci Cosmogonie Fashion Show” in front of Geunjeongjeon, the hall that once hosted major national events and foreign diplomats in the Joseon Dynasty, inside Gyeongbok Palace, in November. 1. Cosmogonie is the name of the latest collection of the luxury Italian fashion brand and around 500 people were invited to attend the show.

The CHA said it had approved the show after judging it would be a great opportunity to show the world the beauty of Gyeongbok Palace, but that “it is difficult to go ahead with the event in this current situation.”

The Seoul Metropolitan Government holds the 2022 Seoul Spring/Summer Fashion Week at Deoksu Palace in central Seoul on October 5, 2011. It used all five palaces as runways. [YONHAP]

The issue of how to use the Blue House has been hotly debated especially among the ruling and opposition parties since President Yoon Suk-yeol announced that he will move the presidential office to Yongsan in central Seoul and “return” the Blue House. which had been used as the presidential office and residence for more than seven decades and as the back garden of Gyeongbok Palace before that, for the public. The issue has now drawn public attention due to the Vogue photo shoot controversy.

Culture Minister Park Bo-gyoon announced in July that the government plans to turn the Blue House into a “multipurpose cultural complex,” adding that the Blue House will not simply be kept as a historical space once inhabited by past presidents. .

Park said the ministry has four main “goals” for the Blue House, which are: an art complex, a historical museum for past presidents, a high-quality arboretum and a cultural heritage site. The Palace of Versailles is used as an example, Park said, because it is a successful model that has achieved all this and is loved by visitors from around the world.

Chanel’s 2013 Cruise Collection is held at the Trois Fontaines Bosquet at Château de Versailles on May 14, 2012. [JOONGANG PHOTO]

Park’s reference to the Palace of Versailles may have more parallels to the situation at the Blue House than he realizes.

The Palace of Versailles, or Chateau de Versailles, has been known for hosting a number of fashion shows starting with the historic Battle of Versailles in 1973, as well as hosting contemporary art exhibitions that have created quite a stir along the way.

One of the most striking exhibits was Japanese artist Takashi Murakami’s cartoon sculpture installation inside the French palace that contrasted with the Baroque and Rococo interiors of Versailles in 2010. One of Louis XIV’s descendants filed an injunction to stop the exhibit, arguing that Murakami’s flamboyant style of work dishonors the memory of his predecessors and that it “denatures” French culture.

In 2008, another descendant of Louis XIV filed a complaint to close the show of the American artist Jeff Koons, but a French court dismissed the lawsuit.

Jean-Jacques Aillagon, former president of Chateau de Versailles, said in an interview with Korea JoongAng Daily during his visit to Seoul in 2010 that although Louis XIV’s descendants are making trouble, “they have no rights to Chateau de Versailles. It belongs to the French people.”

Aillagon was president of Versailles until October 2011. He also served as France’s culture minister from 2002 to 2004.

Takashi Murakami’s “Oval Buddha” on display at the Chateau de Versailles in 2010. [CHATEAU DE VERSAILLES]

Aillagon is the one who initiated solo exhibitions of such sensational contemporary artists as Murakami and Koons during his tenure. He said the reason for this was to attract more local visitors as well as the younger generations, an aim which was successful.

“It is important that the palace, where the past stories and old legacies are gathered, can also serve as a place for the new creations of our days,” he said.

When asked what the Korean authorities, who are torn between preserving the palaces and their modern uses, should do, he said it was inevitable that the government would “carefully preserve [the palaces] so that future generations can see the cultural heritage. But they don’t have to be a dead place or a place of the past. A living culture must be in them. Holding high-quality cultural events in old buildings can be a way to help them be a vibrant place.”

Design critic Choi Beom said this is why the Blue House, which is not even a royal palace, should not be criticized for hosting such a cultural event.

“The Blue House is not a sanctuary,” he said. “I am not saying that the place that has served as the presidential office and residence for more than seven decades is not important. It has its historical significance. What I am saying is that it is not a sacred ground where people should tremble in fear of violating its dignity. It is a cultural heritage, so of course we should preserve it carefully, but at the same time use it actively.”

Choi said the main reason why there is so much backlash against using the Blue House or even the old palaces of the Joseon Dynasty is because many Koreans are “still sentimental about the Joseon Dynasty.”

“They are living in the Republic of Korea, but at the same time, they seem to be remembering Joseon,” he said.

The Sejong Hall inside the main office building of the Blue House has a painting of ″Ilwolobongdo″ by artist Song Kyu Tae. Ilwolobongdo is the famous depiction of the sun, moon and five peaks, which symbolize power and eternity. It was placed behind the thrones of the rulers of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). [MOON SO-YOUNG]

Just hours after Vogue Korea published the photos online, former President Moon Jae-in’s protocol secretary Tak Hyun-min wrote on his Facebook, “Just as Japan turned Changgyeong Palace into a zoo, planted Sakura tree and held an opening ceremony at night by waving cherry blossom branches, it seems that the Yoon Suk-yeol administration will probably engage in all kinds of ridiculous acts in the Blue House and Yongsan throughout his term. ”

Choi said Tak’s comments compared the Blue House to a royal palace and a sacred land where people should behave accordingly.
“It’s anachronistic,” he said. “The Blue House or the old palaces I think are, although we don’t say it out loud, theme parks to be more direct. People should stop getting so caught up in authoritarianism and nostalgia for Joseon.”

BY YIM SEUNG-HYE [yim.seunghye@joongang.co.kr]