The Plaza as a Public Art: The Case of GwanghwaMun Plaza in Seoul

Abstract

This paper examines the significance of a plaza as a form of public art, exemplifying it on the case of the recently built GwanghwaMun Plaza, Seoul, Korea. It is related to the attempts to find an answer to the question: ”does public art serve only as decoration or has it the power to make people aware of the importance and quality of public spaces and to cure social ills?” Plaza is the Spanish word for an open urban public space, such as a city square. All through Spanish America, it held three closely related institutions: the cathedral, the Cabildo or administrative center, which might be incorporated in a wing of a governor's palace, and the audiencia or law court. According to the planners of the GwanghwaMun Plaza, the square was designed to revive the glory of old GwanghwaMun Street, as well as to reaffirm a central axis of the government. The plaza measures 34m in width and 550m in length, and is installed between two roads. Following the designers, GwanghwaMun Plaza is based on examples drawn out from the cities of advanced countries. At the core of the design was the plan to reopen the space and give back its national identity to the Korean people. It can be regarded as a beginning in the restoration of national identity, placing the Plaza at its core, similar to other major citysquares, such as the TiananMeng Guangchang (天安門廣場) in Beijing. Nonetheless, there is a severe criticism on the present form of GwanghwaMun, that from a fundamental point of view, it is not a square or plaza at all, since squares are basically vacant spaces. The need for extravagant and spectacular exhibition seems to have overridden the basic functions of a plaza. To become a representative landmark and also function as a plaza, it must not become a relic, but has to be utilized by the citizens as such. The true value of the design for the public domain must lie in structuring a harmonious space that combines people's lives and resolves their anonymity. It might be more than proper to describe GwanghwaMun Plaza as a newly formed urban space. In order for the newly created square to use the ancient marks as step-stones towards an ideal square of the present, its role and image, as well as the facilities involved, must eventually evolve.