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THE JOONG-ANG ILBO
31 de agosto de 2012
Jeju’s inability to recognize an art in masterpiece
On August 21st, policy forum, ‘Why should the Casa del Agua be conserved’? was held in the Jeju Parliament building. Casa del Agua is a gallery located nearby Joongmoon beach in Jeju province, which was designed by a world renowned Mexican architect, Ricardo Legorreta(1931-2011).
Then who is Legorreta? Tadao Ando who received a Pritzker prize which is considered as architecture’s Nobel Prize has always admired Legorreta. Legorreta served as an award jury for this prize for 10 years, including the year when Tadao Ando was awarded.
The Casa del Agua was completed in 2009, as a posthumous work of Legorreta. He has visited Jeju two times during the time of the construction of the gallery. During his stay, he was amazed by stones of Jeju. Works of Legorreta can be found in only two places in Asia; one being in Jeju, and other one being in Japan, though the one in Japan is private property and is not open to public.
Seogwipo City, however, holds a firm opinion. Their point of view is that the law does not permit permanent building within the distance of 100m from the coastline and the fact that the building was initially constructed as a temporary building destined to be demolished in the future, the building’s demolition is necessary.
In Jeju there are works of various world masters, such as Mario Botta, Tadao Ando and Itami Jun and it can be designed as an island of art. Yet, city authority’s level of perspective in art is quiet disappointing. Despite the statement of protest and request to stop the demolition by Government of Mexico and Ambassador of Mexico in Korea, the Jeju province does not seem to even reconsider the case.
During the debate on the August 21, architect Sung Hyo-sang said, ‘’ Eyes of whole world are on Jeju and that we have no right to destroy. However, officials of Jeju province who does not know anything more than regulations, perhaps have the power to destroy.