The bane of covid-19 in the art world is far from over. Its latest victim was the art space in Seoul.
In the wake of rising cases of coronavirus, the South Korean government has ordered all state museums in Seoul to shut down. The National Museum of Korea and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) have both shuttered their doors already. The Seoul Museum of Art has also announced to close down by end of Tuesday. The museums are shut down at least until December 18, thought the re-opening would entirely depend upon the situation of the pandemic. However, museums outside Seoul continue to operate for now, like MMCA’s Gwacheon and Cheongju branches.
South Korea has been trying hard to contain the sudden rise of COVID-19 cases in the country, after seemingly controlling it earlier this year. Things have been worse in its capital Seoul. Out of the 500+ daily cases across the country, a majority are coming from Seoul. The government has put in place various strict social distancing measures in the city. All public gatherings are to be limited to 50 people. Gyms and clubs are ordered to be shut down. While restaurants are allowed to remain open currently, they much close diners by 9 pm.
The current orders are limited to state museums alone. Many private galleries remain functional, though they have placed precautions of their own. All of them are expected to enforce social distancing and entry is allowed only via prior reservations. Many galleries also use contact-tracing, logging the details of the visitors either digitally or the gallery’s logbooks.
