WEBZINE ACC

In May and June, the ACC offers a unique tour to its visitors. It is the “A green walk through the ACC” program, which offers a refreshing walk through the greenery of the late spring and the sparkling vitality of early summer.

“A green walk through the ACC” is a guided tour where visitors explore the ACC spaces, landscape, and public art within the greenery on foot. In this walk through the ACC, one can see and appreciate the park spaces ordered in functionality and form of the building in question, flowers and trees on the premises, and public art installations, all accompanied by an engaging description of the guide.

Bench in front of the ACC Culture Exchange

Green is a word that conjures a feeling of delicious anticipation, and it was with that anticipation that I waited for the walk to begin at 16:00. I arrived a bit earlier than the beginning of the tour, so I took a look around the ACC and found it wearing the summer dress of refreshing early summer green with grace, greeting its visitors with dazzling vivaciousness. The starting point of the tour “A green walk through the ACC” is the Visitors Center at the ACC Culture Exchange. ACC Culture Exchange is the heart of the ACC’s spirit of Gwangju, passed down by six preserved historic sites of the former Jeollanam-do Provincial Office, conference room, annex, etc. It is where the traces of Korea’s modern and contemporary history can be most clearly felt. I beheld the “Witness Tree,” a tree that had survived the events of May 1980 as a witness to those who suffered, and reflected upon the struggles waged back then and the things I can enjoy today because of that struggle.

“Victory!” by Wang Du

After starting our walk at the ACC Culture Exchange area, the tour moved onto the Plaza Bridge and the Hanul Madang. However, before moving onto Hanul Madang, we made a short stop at the Plaza Bridge, where we had a magnificent view of the Mudeungsan Mountain far away. As our guide explained, the complex was built in a way that would not obscure the former Jeollanam-do Provincial Office building and Mudeungsan Mountain; that was why many of the major facilities in the ACC are found underground. Now that I found myself in front of the view of the Mudeungsan Mountain, I understood immediately what that meant. I allowed my gaze to wander from the Mudeungsan Mountain to the area below the Plaza Bridge, where the work “Victory!“ by artist Wang Du stands as one of the foremost examples of public art in the ACC area. “V” here refers to the victorious city of Gwangju and its triumph in the name of democracy and freedom, while the exposed bones refer to the sacrifices made by the citizens during the May 18 Democracy Movement to facilitate that victory.

Visitors enjoy the early summer day on the grass lawn of the Hanul Madang

We passed through the Plaza Bridge to the Hanul Madang, full of people enjoying the mild weather of early summer. Hanul Madang has become one of the most popular venues for the people of Gwangju, an expansive space of green grass and blue skies where one can lie down and enjoy the sun with family members, get lost in conversations with friends, and enjoy a picnic with the changing colors of the season. It is also famous as a place to enjoy a beautiful sunset in the city center, so I made a mental note to stop by and take a breather when I am in the area at sunset. Before we made our way toward the ACC Creation, we had a chance to listen to the story of the 70-odd lightwells found on the rooftop garden. The lightwells in the ACC’s rooftop garden are built in the image of stones found in Gwangjueupseong Walled Town and are used as pathways throughout the building, bringing natural light in the daytime to the underground areas and conversely bringing light from indoor areas to the rooftop garden at night.

When one steps down from the rooftop garden to the ACC Creation on the escalator, one is brought closer to the expansive garden one had seen from above. ACC’s gardens are said to be inspired by the flora in Mudeungsan Mountain and correspondingly place greater emphasis on natural appearance rather than artificial touch. The garden stones excavated during the complex’s construction enhance this feeling of fidelity to nature. Because we were using transmitters to listen to our guide’s explanations, I rushed onto a different path to see the flowers and trees hidden within the garden. The image created by trees and their shadows, flower petals circling in the wind, and the leaves in unexpected places were enough to make me cry out loud, “Thank goodness for this walk!”

Butterfly Park Music Fountain

The Butterfly Park Music Fountain, a musical fountain resembling a butterfly in flight, is situated in a small garden that symbolizes the hope of the ACC to propagate the value of Asian culture across the fields and the mountains, like a flock of butterflies. The tour “A green walk through the ACC” ended with an explanation in front of the Big Door outside the ACC Theater 1. In July, this would be the site of the ACC Big Door Cinema program, where visitors can watch curated films on the massive screen of the ACC Theater’s Big Door.

Just like that, my 40-minute walk through the verdant leaves and the fragrance of narcissus, rose, Chinese fringe tree, and peony ended. The tour “A green walk through the ACC” was a short but no less valuable time to find a long rest within the city and my daily life in a season where the sunshine of early summer began to bring beads of sweat to my brow.

“A green walk through the ACC” starts at 16:00 every Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday. After this season, one has to wait for a full year to enjoy the tour, so don’t miss out on the chance to join this tour, which will be offered until June 26. Visitors can reserve via the ACC web page (www.acc.go.kr). But even if you miss this tour, the ACC has planned other seasonal tour programs. In early fall, from September to October, the ACC will offer the Colorful ACC Autumn Walk (tentative title), while in November, the Snowy ACC Winter Walk (tentative title) will allow you to get to know the ACC in early winter.

For more information on “A green walk through the ACC”Click to proceed to the web page.