Seoul City Opens 'Yongsan Urban Memory Exhibition Hall'... Post-Liberation Yongsan Base Footage Released

Exhibition Hall Established on 1st-2nd Floors of Public Facility Building in Yongsan 4 District Harrington Square Complex... Opening April 1

Yongsan Urban Memory Exhibition Hall

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 31st that it will open the ‘Yongsan Urban Memory Exhibition Hall,’ which records the urban transformation history of Yongsan, on April 1st. To commemorate the opening, Seoul plans to release videos capturing the interior and exterior views of the U.S. military Yongsan Base after liberation.

The exhibition hall was established on the 1st and 2nd floors of the public facility building within the Harrington Square complex in Yongsan District 4, a facility donated through the urban environment improvement project, covering a total area of 550㎡. The hall consists of the first floor, which exhibits Yongsan’s historical transformation by era and materials and artworks related to the Yongsan tragedy, and the second floor, which includes an archive room where visitors can view over 300 photos, videos, and documents related to the Yongsan Base.

On the first floor, a permanent exhibition showcases Yongsan’s evolution from a key transportation hub and gathering place for goods and manpower during the Joseon Dynasty, through the Japanese colonial period and the Korean War, to its transformation into New Yongsan. Visitors can also see about 30 memorial artworks related to the Yongsan tragedy and maps depicting Yongsan’s changes over time. The second floor introduces the ‘Yongsan Park Gallery’ located at Camp Kim within the Yongsan Base and the ‘Yongsan Park Platform’ at Noksapyeong Station, along with current views of Yongsan’s landscape. A bookshelf-style archive room is also available for anyone to access overseas records, books, and materials.

In the archive room, visitors can watch a documentary-style video titled ‘Yongsan in the Turbulence of Modern Korean History: Life and Reconstruction of a Collapsed City,’ which is a 2-minute and 30-second edited compilation of about ten videos collected from the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

The exhibition hall operates from Tuesday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Visitors can access it through the Seoul Public Service Reservation system or on-site registration. The number of visitors may be limited depending on the COVID-19 situation.

Meanwhile, to coincide with the opening of the exhibition hall, Seoul has produced the ‘2021 Yongsan Urban Memory Exhibition Hall’ catalog, which is available at the Seoul Library. It can also be viewed on the Seoul Urban Planning Portal and the Seoul Library website.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.