Colorful mural paintings stop the steps of visitors as the images create unique styles for villages. The main goal of drawing on walls is to improve the quality of life for the residents. 'The Ewha Mural Village' is the starting point of the history of wall-painting villages in Korea. It is located in Ewha-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul. This village attracts many visitors due to the beauty of the wall paintings.
The Curtain Went Up at the Ewha Mural Village
The Ewha Mural Village was started from 'The Naksan Art Project' that was established in 2006. The main purpose of the project was improving the articstic and cultural aspects of urban areas. At first, more than 70 paintings were painted by 68 artists. The project was under the condition of promising repair work in the future. Even though the start of the project was widely welcomed by residents and society, the actual conditions of the village are not as great as people expected. There are issues such as maintenance work, shortage of facilities, and the discomfort of the residents of the Ewha Mural Village.
Negative Conditions of the Mural Village
One of the negative aspects of Ewha Mural Village is that the repair work has not been carried out properly. Images on the walls are dissimilar from other art works. Thus, people need to make more of an effort in order to keep the original shape of the paintings. Maintenance of the work is essential to keep the famed name of the Ewha Mural Village. It became well-known after the TV program '1 night 2 days' showed the wing paintings throughout the media. Hence, the village got more attention than the past, but it has started to face problems nowadays. There were too many people who visited the village and did not respect the privacy of the residents. People living in the Ewha Mural Village were stressed, so they decided to erase the wing paintings. Nonetheless, the village is recognized as a tourist attraction in Seoul, there are residents who still undergo suffering due to inappropriate conditions. Moreover, it is easy to see scribbles on the walls when people go to the Ewha Mural Village. Every single painting has particular meanings and a pleasant appearance. As a result, guests do not take the responsibility of preserving the paintings, but those art works were gravely damaged. Scrawlings on the walls disturb people who take pleasure in paintings.
Insufficient facility is another issue that should be considered at the Ewha Mural Village. The number of facilities is not enough although many people visit the village. Generally, tourists’ attractions have a variety of installations in order to provide convenience. However, facilities are unavailable in the Ewha community. For instance, there is only one cafe in the Ewha Mural Village and it can only accommodate five or six people at once. It does not open on Sunday when most of visitors are near the Ewha Mural Village. In addition, public facilities such as toilets are not easy to find around the murals. The paintings are not gathered together, so people should spend more time trying to find the drawings. Since there are no such places to take a break, tourists can’t help but feel uncomfortable. It prevents the return visits of people as the effectiveness of it as a tourist’ attraction is being debased.
Furthermore, the considerable distress of the residents in the Ewha Mural Village is a critical subject. The Ewha Mural village is the place where the occupants are still living without any proper regulations on keeping their privacy. Nowadays, they often face embarrassing moments due to improper actions taken by people from other places. Since the village got the name as 'Mural Village,' residents' habitation is exposed to the public. The problem is that tourists do not respect the lives of people in the village. When people come to the Ewha Mural Village, they sometimes take pictures of the interiors of houses and people around the village. They take actions like that without any permission because they do not take the issue seriously. The human rights of privacy are invaded by thoughtless people. Besides, the residents do not get any economic profits from visiting. There is no reasonable payback for people who gave up their residence.
Solutions for Ewha Mural Village Rehabilitation
These problems should be solved as soon as possible. Ewha Mural Village has not functioned properly as a tourist attraction. There are some suggestions for Ewha Mural Village rehabilitation.
To begin with, the mural village should be superintended at the national level. The most urgent thing is to repair the disfigured murals. Effacing the scribbles and drawing new murals should be done. Connecting with service activity organizations made up of university students might be a good idea. The village is close to the university area. If the government uses that human resource, They could save on budget. Newly repaired murals will attract tourists back again.
Secondly, making a map and a guide pamphlet of mural village for tourists has to be done. At the moment, there aren’t any maps or guide pamphlets in Ewha Mural Village, so it is hard to find the variety of murals throughout the village. Tourists usually wander about looking for murals. They just turn on their heels without seeing all the murals because they don’t know where they are. Providing the exact location of murals is an indispensable thing for tourist attraction.
Thirdly, a variety of facilities must be set up throughout the village. As mentioned before, the number of facilities is not adequate. Many facilities like toilets, cafes, and benches should be installed. Not only are those facilities good for tourists, but in so doing, residents will profit by running those facilities. By doing so, the government can accomplish a purpose; improving an undeveloped residence district.
All these things are the government’s responsibility. Then, what kinds of things have to be done at the nongovernmental level? To start with, visitors must keep in their mind that Ewha Mural Village is a residential area. Taking out the trash and making noise are things that we have to predispose visitors not to do. Above all things, tourists should avoid scribbling on the mural and damaging them.
The government has invested a lot of money in establishing mural villages. However, due to poor post management and same civilians’ irresponsible conduct, the mural village has failed to improve the undeveloped residence district and create a tourist attraction. The important thing is to improve the mural village through government and civilian joint efforts.
By Choi Shi-young
CP Reporter mangoo444@cnu.ac.kr