Russian curator impressed by National Museum of Korea

“Changdeok Palace in the moonlight enraptured me,” Alexei Rybkin, curator of Russia’s State Historical Museum, said about his first impression of Korean cultural heritage at a hotel in Seoul on Monday. “I can’t forget the nice performance of Gayageum (a Korean zither with 12 strings) with the beautiful night scene of the palace.”

Rybkin came to Korea to participate in the Culture Communication Forum hosted by Corea Image Communication Institute (CICI), an annual event to promote Korea’s image and traditional culture. Located on Red Square in Moscow, the State Historical Museum opened in 1883 and has artifacts of the Romanov family and the Russian Orthodox Church.

Rybkin was deeply impressed by the crowns of Shilla, an ancient kingdom in Korea, exhibited in the National Museum of Korea. “I studied Korean history a little while I was an undergraduate at Moscow State University,” he said. “The crowns of Shilla show the grand scale of Korea’s ancient culture.” He showed several pictures of the museum that he took with his smartphone and said, “It is very impressive that the museum is in the center of Seoul but surrounded by greens such as Yongsan Family Park, which shows the harmony of tradition and the nature.” He added, “Koreans are great in that they have protected their traditional cultural heritage although they had tough time including the colonial rule and war.” He showed an intention to hold a joint exhibition with a Korean museum to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II next year.

Although he is the head of a world-famous museum with a hundred years of history, he said there are a lot to learn from Korean museums. He said, “Korea is highly competitive in using IT in exhibition or maintenance of artifacts.” As an example, he said an exhibition method that shows how to make ceramics with a 3D screen or a guide that explains exhibitions with a smartphone app. He also introduced an electronic system for the registration of exhibition work and hosted an exhibition using multimedia in order to combine IT technologies with museums.

“It was impressive that the visitors heard the information of the exhibition and watched exhibition work with a smartphone app developed by the Korean museum,” he added. “Our museum will introduce it around next year, too.”