DMA - DAEJEON MUSEUM OF ART

Celebrating the ‘Visiting of Daejeon in 2019–2021,’ the Creative Center of Daejeon Museum of Art, an institute built for revitalizing Daejeon’s old town, is holding its Urban Renewal Project (Shelter): Between Collection and Memory, which presents hidden brands of Daejeon.
In 2020, we are planning to look over the culture of Daejeon’s old town as a whole. In this sense, we think that it is very meaningful to look into its urban culture formed by numerous people over many years in terms of the three basic needs for human life: food, clothing, and shelter. We also think that humans are the most important aspect in the process of forming a city.
As we know, all human lifestyles are related with food, clothing, and shelter, and in such relationships culture is nested and people lead their lives through communication. Culture developed and maintained by humans is woven with memories of joy and sorrow, and Daejeon’s old town is abundant with such culture. It is thus more meaningful that this exhibition is held at the Creative Center of Daejeon Museum of Art (registered cultural asset 100), which has long witnessed the old town’s history and culture.

Urban Renewal Project (Shelter): Between Collection and Memory focuses on housing culture, which corresponds to shelter among the three basic needs for human life, under the theme of collection of memory. As the first part of the exhibition looking for cultural values in Daejeon, it introduces a good number of items that Jeon Chang Gon, director of French Cultural Center in Daejeon (Alliance Française de Daejeon) and Lee Heung Suk, head of Cafe Bidol, have collected throughout their lives.
Because the two collectors have long shared their love of their items with other Daejeon citizens at their work places, it cannot be denied that these items hold Daejeon’s own cultural values themselves. In addition to these two collectors, many other people have also been cultivating Daejeon’s culture with their own items, but the number and value of the s Jeon and Lee have collected are beyond our general imagination.
As the two collectors have done, this exhibition thus invites viewers to open the door of the center and view these marvelous collections and to put together the puzzle of Daejeon’s culture and history using them.

JEON CHANG GON - Director of French Cultural Center in Daejeon (Alliance Française de Daejeon)

While studying in France from 1984 to 2001, Jeon Chang Gon collected many French books and items. He later moved to Daejeon with his collection and opened the French Cultural Center in 2009, where French (or Francophone) culture and Korean culture are exchanged through exhibitions, performances, books, and media. The center is filled with 10,000 books, 3,000 DVDs, and other vintage items that are related with France, and holds various music concerts and shows, contributing to the development of Daejeon culture.
The French Cultural Center in Daejeon, a multiplex cultural space where citizens can enjoy French culture at ease, had originally used a remodeled house in Jung-gu, Daeheung-dong. In 2018, Jeon remodeled a rubber factory in Jung-gu, Seokgyo-dong and moved the center there, giving a new name, Entreopô, which means a storehouse in English. The center, decorated with unique interiors recalling a village library in Europe, has since become an attraction of Daejeon where Korean and foreign collectors like to visit.
In this exhibition, in addition to his own items, Jeon also displays 15 paintings by Pae Un-song, a representative painter of the Korean modern art movement.

LEE HEUNG SUK - Head of Cafe Bidol

Lee Heung Suk remodeled a house in Daeheung-dong and opened Cafe Bidol, where many Daejeon artists in music, literature, and art come and exchange their ideas and art together. The cafe has also provided visitors many things to see, witnessing the ups and downs of the old town for 20 years.
Working at the video studio of video artist Kim Haemin, Lee came to interact with many artists in various genres. In 1996, he opened a cafe called Watermelon Sugar in Daeheung-dong, the first area of Daejeon culture, and has since run a few more cafes radiating an artistic ambience (Biscuit, Wonyangwang, and Circus). In 2006, he remodeled an old house near Daejeon Girls’ Middle School into Cafe Bidol as an artistic . He decorated it with numerous LPs, vintage cartoon books, cultural books, figurines, plastic models, toys, photographs, and artworks that people enjoy viewing.
In addition, Lee opened a gallery, Trout Fishing Place. This multiplex cultural space has also been uated as a place that has expanded the unique culture of Daejeon’s old town where the present and the past coexist.