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| Catherine Chevillot, director of the Rodin Museum in Paris |
Catherine Chevillot, director of the Rodin Museum in Paris, said if she were to build a museum based on what she has seen so far, "it would have a garden surrounded by buildings that house objects of different periods ... from the middle ages to the contemporary periods, and see what has changed and what has not,"Chevillot, 53, said in an interview with The Korea Times in Seoul, Monday.
She is in Korea for the first time to speak at the 5th Culture Communication Forum (CCF) in Seoul.
The CCF started on Sunday, with visits to the Dongdaemun Design Plaza, the Leeum, the National Museum of Korea, the Korea Furniture Museum and Hyundai Card Design Lab, followed by the main discussion Tuesday.
"I always wondered how Korea fared compared to the giants China and Japan. The curator at the furniture museum said the Japanese sought to miniaturize things, while the Chinese sought to control nature. However, Korea is not like either one; it is in harmony with nature,"she said. "I think we could see this harmony in Korean furniture, where the proportions are all calculated."
Chevillot also found that harmony at the Hyundai Card Design Lab. "The designs were very simple and elaborate," she said, in a show of harmony.
She also noticed how the National Museum of Korea displayed objects in a way that encouraged the audience to develop a special relationship with them.
"In European museums, it's about accumulating objects," she said. At the Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, she found an excellent mix of works by Korean and Western artists.
When asked about the Rodin Museum, Chevillot said it was small.
"It's in an 18th century ancient and private family building. The rooms are quite small and (have) the decoration of that time. Because of the small space, we have quite a lot of objects. What characterizes the Rodin Museum is the relationship between the rooms and the garden," she said, adding that Auguste Rodin enjoyed gardens and nature very much.
Chevillot also found Koreans culturally open.
"At the Dongdaemun Design Plaza, I saw a relationship between the past and the future," she said. "In France, when you find archaeological relics in France, you cannot build anything around there ... but the relationship (between the past and the future) that you see there is successful," she said.
Chevillot, who is also a member of the science committee of the Louvre Abu Dhabi said more cultural exchanges will enhance communication between countries.
"There is a longstanding relationship between France and Japan and France and China," she said. "The French has to discover Korea ... To French people on the street, Korea is Samsung and Hyundai. They don't know what else is there."
Chevillot said she saw great energy in Korea.
"In visiting the Hyundai Card Design Lab, I saw evidence of a total way of thinking and a total search for life. A very high level of design," she said.
Just what type of life does she see?
"As far as I can tell, there is a strong relationship between past wisdom and the new world, the world of the next century," she said. "Very often in France, if you're modern, you're against the past, and vice versa. What I find is an alternative to that situation."
In her collaborative work with the Louvre Abu Dhabi, she discovered how cultural exchanges can change the behavior of people. The Louvre Abu Dhabi will open in December 2015 and will feature some of Rodin's works, courtesy of the Rodin Museum.
"Anywhere I go, to China, Korea, Mexico or Brazil, I say ‘Rodin,' and everyone is interested," she said, adding that it's fulfilling to see how Rodin has touched people's lives.
Why is Rodin so beloved?
She said it is because Rodin appeared in the critical time where he was an artist of both the 19th and 20th centuries.
But more importantly, "Rodin speaks about human patience, love, compassion ...through body language," Chevillot said. "He speaks to anyone; you don't need to learn anything to see the expression of the body," she added.
She would like to return to Korea to delve deeper into its culture.
Since 2012, Chevillot has been the director of the Rodin Museum, which hosts 6,600 Rodin sculptures. She majored in art history at the University of Dijon. She started her career as the deputy director of the Museum of Grenoble in 1986 and has received recognition for her work, including theLegion d'honneur Chevalier.
