Busan Museum to host scent experience tied to Joseon garden exhibition

Busan Municipal Museum will host a scent experience event, "Joseon's Garden Through Fragrance," on Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. in the lobby outside its special exhibition hall, the museum announced Friday.

The cultural program invites visitors to explore the garden culture of Joseon-era seonbi — the scholar-gentry class — through the sense of smell, evoking the contemplative and aesthetic pursuits they enjoyed in nature.

Participants can sample four fragrances developed from natural elements that symbolize the Joseon garden: plum blossom, bamboo, lotus and pine. Scent strips printed with images of artifacts and miniature empty vials will be provided so visitors can take home their favorite scent.

A dedicated keepsake pouch, designed around the Joseon concept of "cha-gyeong" — borrowing the surrounding natural landscape as part of the garden's scenery — will also be given to participants.

The event is free and open to the first 300 visitors on a first-come, first-served basis, with no advance reservations. Numbered tickets will be distributed on site from 1:30 p.m., and the experience will proceed in order from 2 p.m. The event closes once supplies run out. Further details are available on the museum's website at museum.busan.go.kr/busan.

Meanwhile, the companion exhibition "Joseon's Garden: Planting the Heart, Wandering the Landscape," which opened Oct. 13, runs free of charge at the Busan Municipal Museum special exhibition hall through Dec. 13. The show draws on paintings, crafts and immersive video to introduce the Joseon view of nature and the lives of the seonbi.