A view of the National Museum of World Writing Systems (MOW)
A museum dedicated to celebrating the world's various writing systems and their historical value was launched in Songdo, Incheon, on Thursday.
Nine years after the initial plan came together in 2014, the National Museum of World Writing Systems, occupying 15,650 square meters in Songdo is finally set to open its doors to the public on Friday, with a series of celebratory events and seminars to follow.
“The greatest invention of humanity is the writing system. Through it, history has evolved and humanity has communicated. It’s meaningful to build a writing system museum in South Korea because Hangeul is the only script (of a native language) that has clear principles of creation and its own distinct structure,” Park Bo-gyoon, the minister of culture, sports and tourism, said at the official opening ceremony on Thursday. “We will spare no efforts to become a platform that links Hangeul, the foundation of Korean culture, and the world’s writing systems.”
The museum operates a permanent exhibition that explores the culture of writing from a comparative perspective. Under the theme "The Great Journey of Writing and Civilization," the exhibition displays a diverse range of artifacts and digital materials, introducing 55 different writing systems that span from the earliest cuneiform script, the first known writing system, to Egyptian hieroglyphs that have influenced so many of the world's writing systems, to Chinese characters, which are the oldest continuously used script, and Hangeul.
Installation artwork "Tower of Babel" (2023) by Kim Seung-young symbolizes the origin of language and sound before the invention of writing systems. (MOW)
The exhibition provides explanations in nine languages -- Korean alongside English, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Spanish, French and Arabic -- and allows visitors to interact directly with replicated exhibits.
The museum holds 543 items that are important in understanding the development of writing systems, including the “Tablet of Round Ark,” the Book of Joshua from the 42-line Gutenberg Bible, Pliny's ”Natural History,” the Luther Bible and more. Currently, 180 items are on display, with 136 of them original and 44 replicas.
A special exhibition commemorating the opening, “TLDR_Too Long Didn’t Read: What is the future of writing system,” runs until Nov. 19. The exhibition questions how we communicate in a world where text and nontext are increasingly intertwined, and whether writing systems are even still necessary.
Also as part of the celebration, a seminar and cultural events will take place at and around the museum until July 6.
On Friday, a conference themed “Museum, Telling the Story of Writing Systems,” will gather experts like Kim Joo-won, the museum’s inaugural president, Irving Finkel, a British philologist and Assyriologist, Ulf Solter, art historian and director of the Gutenberg Museum, and Japanese archaeologist Akio Tsukimoto.
On Saturday, a concert will be held at 7 p.m. at Central Park in Songdo, featuring seven musicians. An underwater show that utilizes a large aquarium in the museum lobby will take place from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday.
The museum, built with a budget of 61.1 billion won ($46.8 million), marks Incheon’s first state museum. Its design -- “Pages” by Samoo Architects & Engineers -- was selected through an international competition in 2017.
The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. from Tuesday to Sunday.
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