New museum celebrates the written word in its many forms

Hundreds of people visit Songdo’s Central Park in Incheon on weekends to enjoy the greenery, but a lot more swarmed in this weekend for the new National Museum of World Writing Systems. The museum, which opened its doors Friday, comprehensively ...

The new National Museum of World Writing Systems in Songdo's Central Park in Incheon opened its doors on Friday. [NATIONAL MUSEUM OF WORLD WRITING SYSTEMS]

Hundreds of people visit Songdo’s Central Park in Incheon on weekends to enjoy the greenery, but a lot more swarmed in this weekend for the new National Museum of World Writing Systems.

The museum, which opened its doors Friday, comprehensively examines the world's writing systems and their historical value.

It is the third museum of its kind after museums in France and China, as well as Incheon's first national museum. The facility represents the culmination of a decade of effort on the part of Incheon to locate a national museum in the city.

“It’s great to finally have a national museum in Songdo International City. It took me and my two high school boys two good hours to go through the exhibition and I think we’ve learned a lot today,” said Koh Myeong-hee, a local resident who visited the museum on Saturday.

Jim Fields, 47, an American who lives in Songdo, said it was nice to have a national museum he could walk to. He also appreciated the explanations in nine different languages, including English, French, Chinese, Japanese, Thai and Vietnamese.

“I have a lot of friends, families and business partners visiting me here in Songdo and I won’t hesitate to introduce them to the museum,” Fields said. “I really love the architecture as well. It goes really well with the park. I think it’s great for the city to have this landmark.”

The two-story building with one basement floor sits on 19,418 square meters of land in Central Park. It is called “Pages” as it resembles an unfurled white scroll. The design by Samoo Architects & Engineers was selected through an international competition in 2017. The museum cost the government 72 billion won to build ($54.7 million), including 10 billion to acquire items for its permanent exhibit “Civilization and Writing: A Great Journey” on the basement floor.

The exhibit introduces the history of 55 of the world’s most important writing systems, from the earliest cuneiform script invented in ancient Mesopotamia around 3500 B.C. to Egyptian hieroglyphs, Chinese characters and Korea's hangul, invented in 1443.

A visitor looks at different world writing systems at the museum's permanent exhibit "Civilization and Writing: A Great Journey" during a preview event on Thursday. [NATIONAL MUSEUM OF WORLD WRITING SYSTEMS]

“The greatest invention of humanity is writing systems,” said Park Bo-gyoon, the minister of culture, sports and tourism during the opening ceremony held on Thursday.

“Establishing the National Museum of World Writing Systems in Korea is meaningful because hangul is the only script of a native language that has clear principles of creation and its own distinct structure. The ministry will make sure to support the museum so that it can serve as an integrated platform for history and civilization, connecting hangul, which is the basis of Korean culture, and the world’s writing systems.”

Park Bo-gyoon, minister of culture, sports and tourism, delivers a congratulatory speech during the opening ceremony for the National Museum of World Writing Systems on Thursday. [NEWS1]

Kim Ju-won, director of the museum, also said during the opening ceremony that the museum will “become a hub for exhibitions and research to connect the world’s writing systems, cultures and human history.”

Kim also added that the museum aims to attract more than 500,000 visitors a year, including world-renowned scholars.

On Friday, the museum hosted the conference, “Museum, Telling the Story of Writing Systems.” Director Kim as well as Irving Finkel, a British philologist and Assyriologist, Ulf Solter, art historian and director of the Gutenberg Museum, and Japanese archaeologist Akio Tsukimoto delivered presentations.

Though the majority of the collection's 543 items are replicas, the ministry said it has worked hard to secure important artifacts covering a period from 2100 B.C. to the present day.

The original "Book of Joshua" from the 42-line Gutenberg Bible now in collection of the National Museum of World Writing Systems [NATIONAL MUSEUM OF WORLD WRITING SYSTEMS]

One such artifact is a “Book of Joshua” from the 42-line Gutenberg Bible.

Invented by Johannes Gutenberg, the Gutenberg Bible was the first book printed in the West with movable metal type. The museum's selection is from one of 180 first editions printed around 1454, of which only 49 copies survive. Korea is the second Asian country after Japan to own part of a Gutenburg Bible.

Opposite the “Book of Joshua” is the Jikji, the oldest known text printed with movable metal type. Since the National Library of France owns the original copy of this important Korean heritage, the National Museum of World Writing Systems displays a copy.

"Tablet of Round Ark" on display at the exhibit, containing a part of the Epic of Atrahasis written in Akkad cuneiform. [YONHAP]

Another unique artifact is the “Tablet of Round Ark,” which contains a part of the Epic of Atraḥasis written in Akkad cuneiform. There are 60 lines of cuneiform etched into the front and back of the tablet.

There’s also Psamtek-menty’s canopic jar from around 664 B.C. to 525 B.C., where visitors can witness the Egyptian writing system of hieroglyphs, literally, "sacred carvings," as they mainly appear on walls of temples and royal tombs. The jar stored human organs removed during mummification.

The final section of the exhibit explores writing systems of the future, including potentially universal writing systems such as pictographs.

“It'll be so cool if this becomes reality, then I won’t have to bother going to English cram school anymore,” said a boy chuckling to his friend.

The museum said it commissioned two artists to create works for the exhibit.

The installation piece “Tower of Babel” by Kim Seung-young uses distinctly shaped speakers from different countries. The work signifies the origins of human desires and the multiplicity of languages. Visitors can stand inside the tower and listen to different languages from the speakers.

“'Tower of Babel’ is from the Bible,” said a curator of the museum. “In the Bible, people built a tower to reach the heavens, which angered God. To prevent them from trying again, God made them speak different languages and scattered them around the world. The artist focused on this Tower of Babel in the Bible symbolizes humankind’s first language and, therefore, is the origin of language. That is why we decided to display this piece at the beginning of the exhibit.”

Ahn Sang-soo's "Alpha.to.Hieut" on display at the exhibit [YIM SEUNG-HYE]

Another is graphic designer and typographer Ahn Sang-soo’s “Alpha.to.Hieut.”

“Alpha in Greek means the beginning. In the Bible, Alpha and Omega symbolize the beginning and the end — something that’s whole and complete,” said Ahn. “Hieut is the last letter of hangul. Writing began thousands of years ago and finally reached hangul. I thought ‘Alpha to Hieut’ is an expression that can encompass the entirety of contemporary civilization.”

On the first floor, there’s the Children’s Gallery, where kids can also learn about the world’s writing systems at eye level.

There’s also a Special Exhibition Hall, where “Too Long, Didn’t Read: What is the future of writing systems?” will run through Nov. 19. The interactive exhibit invites visitors to think about changes in communication methods and the role of writing systems.

The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Tuesday to Sunday. Admission is free for all exhibitions. For more information, call (032) 290-2000.

BY YIM SEUNG-HYE [yim.seunghye@joongang.co.kr]