Making Seoul Fun, Elegant

The city to push the City Gallery Project to fill Seoul with artistic and cultural objects

Seoul City has new regulations in the New Year for the capital's residents to abide by. From Jan. 19, any cars that keep odd-driving day regulation are required to attach an electronic tag to earn an exemption to pay toll fees to pass through the Nos. 1 and 3 tunnels. SUVs with the non-business passenger capacity for 7 to 10 will also be attach tags for odd-day driving system. Cars that emit less discharges will also be entitled to reductions in tunnel fees.
As of January this year, the number of cars with electronic tags attached exceeded over 650,000. Seoul City installed equipment to check if the odd-day driving system is kept in 14 locations in the city. In addition, the number of PDA cars checking the observance of the odd-day driving system has been increased by 250 with the completion of the RFID system to strengthen the operation system.
The city means to enforce the odd-day driving system more strictly in the new year with the attachment of electronic tag system and more incentives for cars that observes the system to reduce the number of cars on the streets c in the city.
"Hi, Seoul Festival"which is in its 5th year this year scheduled for from April 28 to may 6 will be more colorful with increased number of events divided into "Han River Miracle Festival"and "Seoul History Festival.
"A bridge over the river some 600 meters long will be built from Sunyu islet and Mangwon area to let people walk across the bridge as if they are walking on the river to make the river more friendly to people.
Many events celebrating Seoul's history will also be held during the Seoul History Festival. An event is dedicated to recreating the scene of King Jeongjo of Joseon Dynasty and his royal entourage crossing the Han River on Noryangjin Bridge based on historic research.
The king crossed the bridge on his way to pay respect to his father, Prince Sado, who died young, at his tomb. Small boats will be linked together to form a bridge some 900 meters long.
Various royal court ceremonial events during the Joseon Dynasty will be recreated at large palaces including Changdok, Woonhyun and Gyeongbok palaces in Seoul. Ancient Joseon Dynasty residential houses with tiled-roofs will be built to recreate a residential community in the bygone era on the ground of the Jaedong Primary School in the Jongno Ward in Seoul.
The festival will also include a parade from Jongmyo Royal Temple where names of royal family members are inscribed and preserved and to Seoul Plaza in front of Seoul City Hall.
The city also will translate its plans to make Seoul a cultural metropolis into action by completing plans for "the city gallery project"and pilot models. The plan is designed to make Seoul residents to appreciate art pieces in an appropriate environment to set up Seoul's identity and its historic place, which will do a lot to improve Seoul's image.
In order to carry out the project, the city set up a 30-man committee composed of experts in various fields ranging from fine art, architecture, design and philosophy and tourism, among others. The Seoul City Public Fine Art Committee held five meetings since November last year to come up with basic plans and model events for the city gallery project. A total of 41 model events will be held under the project until the end of this year and in June,
the committee will draw up the master plan for the City Gallery Project that the city will pursue in the next 4 years until 2010.
As the start of the project, the city will install murals and sculptures in 24 places in such popular places as City Hall Plaza, East Gate, and on the embankment along the Han River.
The city also plans to put artistic designs on public places such as benches, resting places, street lights, and manhole covers, among others, to make the city residents to be aware of the need for public art to bring comfort to their tired bodies from daily grinds.
The city will follow the examples of renowned metropolises in the world such as Paris with its Eiffel Tower, New York with the Statue of Liberty and Brussels with the statue of a boy urinating to create a symbol for Seoul. City officials said Seoul has hardware large enough to be among famous cities in the world in terms of scale of population, infrastructure, and economic scale, but it doesn't have beauty, identity, and others to make it standout from other cities, which is why they will go ahead with the project.
The project will be a long-term one and from 2007 to 2008, the city will collect many ideas for the symbolic material and on the necessity for such thing from experts and citizens. In 2009, the city will study the necessity for the project and finish the design for the symbol. Public arts will always be part of the plans for new towns, the districts for balanced development, redevelopment districts, parks, bridges, the municipal buildings, ward office buildings and apartments built by SH Construction Co., in an effort to implant public arts in the city's development areas. nw

(Photo from Left) Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon.; "Three Goddesses of Beauty"installed in front of Kolon Building in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province.; "Maman"by sculptor Louise Bourgeois located in Bilbao, Spain.; Seoul's night scene with fireworks over the Han River to celebrate the New Year.