Museum für Völkerkunde zu Leipzig: Kokdu

Holzplastiken eines Musikers mit Trommel und eines mit Flöte

KOKDU – Companions of the Soul

Small wooden-craved figurines and images from Korea are the focus of this special exhibition that had previously been on show in the US and in Great Britain and can now be visited in Germany. Thanks to the initiative and support of the cultural department of the embassy of the Republic of Korea, the exhibition comes to Leipzig.

Exhibition Site GRASSI Museum Leipzig

DATES 27/09/2013—17/11/2013

The sculptures had once been closely connected to the burial rituals of the Korean people where the little figurines used to decorate biers. In most cases, they put on a human shape and derive from the 19th century. In Korean, the word kokdu describes supernatural beings that help humans and act as a broker between this world and the afterlife. Their task was to accompany the deceased into the next world making their final journey as pleasant as possible. Although the reason for the artworks’ creation was sad, they convey a charm and vitality that is rather unique and that almost lets us forget their original function.

Holzskulptur eines Reiters auf einem Tiger — **Reiter auf Tiger** Ende 19. Jh.

Today many of the preserved kokdu figurines have their home in the kokdu museum in the Korean capital Seoul. Now, the museum sends 120 of these objects to Europe. Among them are aristocrats and civil servants, soldiers, monks and wizards, servants and acrobats, women and children – all those persons who surrounded the deceased in his lifetime or whose influence he hoped to win. The afterlife is represented by dragon and phoenix. Being works from Korean folk art, they show little similarities with sculptures that were created by professional sculptors for temples and palaces.

Originally all these figurines were created for one time use only. After the burial, the bier and along with it the figurines were mostly burned. Usually after a short appearance, most of the kokdu figurines were instantly lost. With the beginning of industrialization in Korea, the burial ritual itself disappeared in the 20th century.