An old cargo freighter has become an object of art. It is now a favourite rest spot for museum visitors.
The retired cargo ship operated between Mokpo and Jejudo Island off South Korea for 35 years. Now, it has become an architectural installation doubling as a summertime shelter in the courtyard of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul.
The installation “Temp’L” by Shin Hyung-chul and Claire Shin’s Shinslab Architecture is the winning design in this year’s Young Architects Programme.
The Korean edition of the programme, launched by the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1998, has since 2014 selected the best architectural designs that are then installed in the museum courtyard.
Shin Hyung-chul, who travelled to Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and China scouting out candidates, says, ‘It felt like a treasure hunt finding the retired ship, ‘Getting one transported to South Korea would have proved problematic’.
However, he found a suitable vessel that was about to be dismantled in the southwestern port city of Mokpo.
He said, ‘I discovered aesthetics on its rusty surface and scars and in the colours created from more than 20 layers of paint. I realised that an industrial object can be a work of art!’
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Source: The Nation
