The Bangjja Yugi Museum, which is affiliated with the Daegu Arts Center’s Bangjja Yugi Museum Management Office, will be hosting a photography exhibition from February 23 (Thu) through June 25 (Sun) which spotlights the process by which Lee Bong-ju, Important Intangible Cultural Heritage No. 77 (Honorary Title Holder), creates the traditional brassware that is known as “bangjja yugi.”
The connecting glass hallway will be outfitted with a special corner titled “To Stop, To Gaze.” It is a scenic spot from which visitors can see the summit of Palgongsan Mountain, one of Daegu’s best-known natural landmarks, along with the exhibition.
Until June 2023, the museum will be displaying recent photographic footage under the theme “The Life Force of Tradition in Fleeting Moments” of Lee Bong-ju and Lee Hyeong-geun making brass plates. Visitors will be able to feel the dedication and passion for bangjja yugi that is behind each pounding of the hammer.
Traditional Korean brassware (yugi) is divided into two categories depending on manufacturing method: bangjja yugi, which is manually hammered into shape even after molten metal is poured into a mold, and jumul yugi, which can be produced in much larger numbers by using the molded brass as is without further crafting. The former is characterized by its durability, due to having been hammered many times, and the subsequent presence of hammer marks in the final version. Household items made from bangjja yugi were used by premodern Koreans for centuries for their unique color and the fact that, due to being individually crafted, no two look exactly like.
This exhibition will show, through a detailed series of photos, how a bowl or plate made by pouring hot metal into a simple mold is taken out of the mold to be manually carved and polished.
Shin Hyung-seok, the head of the Bangjja Yugi Museum Management Office, said, “We hope that visitors to the Bangjja Yugi Museum, which is located at the foot of Palgongsan Mountain, can enjoy not only this exhibition but also, through the glass windows, a view of Daegu’s beautifully-changing seasons. I would especially like for visitors to realize that behind a single item of brassware is the literal sweat and devotion of the master artisan, who endures extremely hot fires and pounds thousands of times with his hammer to produce a work of bangjja yugi. The Bangjja Yugi Museum will continue to feature exhibitions for the public that showcase traditional technologies, intangible cultural heritages, and Palgongsan Mountain.”
The Bangjja Yugi Museum is also hosting “Stories of My Day: Photos from Hungary,” an exhibition held in partnership with the Seoul Museum of History at its Special Exhibition Hall since January 27. It is popular with Daegu residents for its anthropological perspective of a country which is rarely spotlighted in Korea, which is achieved by comparing photos of Hungarian children engaging in various everyday activities from 1936 and 2021.
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