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| Culture minister Park Bo-gyoon, 3rd from left, attends a ceremony to mark the launch of the construction of a multipurpose art center at Seoul Power Station, an old thermal power station in western Seoul, May 17. Yonhap |
Two retired units of a thermal power plant in western Seoul will turn into an art center modeled after Britain's Tate Modern art gallery by 2025, the culture ministry said Wednesday.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism held a ceremony to mark the launch of the construction of the multipurpose art center at the Seoul Power Station, with about 150 government officials and culture-art figures attending.
Roughly translated as the Danginri Cultural Creative Power Plant, the center will be built into a six-story building on 81,650 square meters of land by 2025.
The Seoul Power Station, previously known as the Danginri Power Plant, has a rich history as South Korea's first coal-fired power plant, commencing operations in 1930. It converted to a heavy oil power facility in 1956 and ultimately to an underground liquefied natural gas-fueled thermal power plant in 2019 due to concerns about its aging infrastructure and urban aesthetics. The aboveground area has been repurposed into a public park, while the fourth and fifth units, although they are no longer active, stand as enduring reminders of its industrial heritage.
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| This image provided by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism provides a bird's-eye view of a multipurpose art center to be created at Seoul Power Station, previously known as the Danginri Power Plant, in western Seoul. Yonhap |
According to the ministry, the fourth unit will be remodeled into a cultural facility with two exhibition halls, a black box theater and a work space for artists. The theater will be created in the turbine hall, which once housed the electricity generators of the old power station.
The fifth unit will be converted to an educational space with minimal change to its original internal structure, so visitors can feel the history of the country's first coal power plant.
The rooftops of both units will be combined to create a spacious public square that offers a captivating view of the Han River.
The ministry said the new cultural facility was inspired by the renowned Tate Modern art gallery situated along the Thames River in London. The gallery opened in 2000 through the ingenious renovation of the Bankside Power Station. The station's interior was repurposed into an expansive exhibition space, while its iconic external features, including its majestic chimney, were preserved.
The ministry, however, emphasized the envisioned art center will not be just a Korean version of Tate Modern.
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| This image provided by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism provides a bird's-eye view of a multipurpose art center to be created at Seoul Power Station, previously known as the Danginri Power Plant, in western Seoul. Yonhap |
"If Tate Modern is an art gallery, Danginri is an original and up-to-date multipurpose cultural space that allows creation, performance and exhibition of all art genres. It will become a hot spot for new culture and arts, and a space for creating the most experimental art," Culture Minister Park Bo-gyoon was quoted as saying in a press release.
He was among the 150 figures who attended the ceremony together with Cho Min-suk, an architect and CEO of Mass Studies who designed the cultural facility.
"Danginri will be a place where ecology and culture as well as the history and the future of young people co-exist, and will become Korea's representative urban space in name and reality," Cho said of the concept of his design. (Yonhap)
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