DMA - DAEJEON MUSEUM OF ART

This October, the Daejeon Museum of Art (DMA) will be opening the doors of DMA Open Storage. As its name suggests, the Open Storage is a type of “small-art museum” in and of itself that makes artworks in storage, to which access is traditionally strictly controlled, available at all times for public viewing. Contrary to the traditional storage space of an art museum, which is closed off and exists for the purpose of keeping the items in the museum’s collection not currently on display at optimal temperature and humidity levels for artwork preservation, open storage is designed to accommodate visitors. In short, it is both a storage facility and a place that gives the general public an opportunity to see museum items up-close. Depending on the extent to which it is made visitor-accessible, open storage is sometimes called “visible storage.” The DMA’s Open Storage will give visitors the most proactive viewing experience possible by permitting them to get physically close to the shelves and racks that hold the artworks.

The first open storage was created in 1976 by the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, and has since been followed by similar facilities at the Brooklyn Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Victoria and Albert Museum, Louvre-Lens, and Schaulager. In Korea, MMCA Cheongju and the National Folk Museum of Korea, Paju recently celebrated the opening of their “Visible Storage” facilities. The opening of a museum storage facility has two long-term implications: 1) the desire of museums to remind society that what a museum owns is also owned by all citizens and 2) a cultural phenomenon that is specific to the 21st century.

Thus far, the DMA’s collection has primarily been displayed through two channels: the annual “New Acquisitions” exhibition, which features items collected in a particular year, and a few special exhibitions. If there is not enough space for a permanent exhibition, displays of newly-acquired items are usually featured for a very short period of time as a special exhibition, making it virtually impossible for the museum’s entire collection to be made available all at once. The DMA’s Open Storage will be addressing this issue by enabling citizens to view museum items—which are, as previously explained, a public asset—at any time. Indeed, its biggest merit is that, unlike the limited scope of a special/thematic exhibition, visitors can see the museum’s collection at their own pace and according to their personal preferences without being tied down by a theme. Seeing artworks in their stored form will give visitors a direct experience of the art museum’s preservation responsibilities in the format of a permanent exhibition.

The exhibition’s title, “Open Storage for Art,” refers first and foremost to the Open Storage itself. More importantly, it also refers to the process by which the DMA’s collection was moved to the new space from its former home and how each item “found its place” in the Open Storage based on categorization by size, format, material, and subject matter. The Open Storage’s area that is open to the public is comprised of two exhibition spaces (Open Storage 1 and 2) that display items from the DMA’s collection and a space for Nam June Paik’s Fractal Turtle Ship. The section that is closed to the public is made up of four areas: Storage 3, Preservation Science Room, Fumigation Room, and Materials Storage Room. Open Storage 1 will initially display 73 of the DMA’s 1,357-item collection, with the items on display being routinely changed to ensure that the entire collection receives attention. The use of two types of shelving—fixed shelves for three-dimensional artworks (sculptures, handicrafts, and new/mixed media) and pull-out racks for two-dimensional artworks (paintings, traditional Korean paintings, and photos)—will allow visitors to see the details of how an art museum storage facility is operated. Open Storage 2 is devoted to archive of Fractal Turtle Ship exactly as it was installed at the Daejeon Expo and, later, in the lobby of the DMA in 2003. To allow for maintenance of the work, which is made up of old electronic devices, in accordance with the DMA’s operations guidelines, the artwork will be turned on for two hours per day (14:00 to 16:00). Furthermore, to allow visitors to experience it when it is not running as well as learn more about Nam June Paik, Fractal Turtle Ship will be displayed alongside Lim Young kyun’s Memory of Nam June Paik series, which is comprised of video recordings of the artwork’s restoration process and the artistic activities of Paik in general.

From their new locations, the items in the DMA’s collection will be able to tell visitors their unique stories from a much closer distance than if they were hung or installed inside the museum. DMA Open Storage will, through consistent communication with visitors, strive to build a stronger relationship between the DMA and the Korean public that will persist for many years to come.