Fantagio, the agency of the group ASTRO, has announced the closure of the memorial space for Moonbin, who passed away this April, apparently due to 'false information being indiscriminately spread on social media.'
On the 3rd, Fantagio posted on the official fan cafe, clarifying,
'Currently, false information related to Moon's Space at Sununsa is being indiscriminately spread on social media, and we are posting this notice to correct the facts. First, Fantagio has not made any kind of agreement, pact, or contract with Sununsa, and there is no financial interest involved.'
Regarding the relocation of Moon's Space from Guukcheongsa to Sununsa, Fantagio explained,
'It was to ensure the safety of visitors during the winter and to place a permanent memorial tablet for Moonbin. Due to the fact that Guukcheongsa is a branch of Sununsa, the decision was made to move to Sununsa.'
They continued, 'The claim that Fantagio profits financially from the temple stay operated by Sununsa is a clear falsehood. We have already announced on November 23 that the temple stay is operated directly by Sununsa, independent of Fantagio, and we hope there is no misunderstanding.'
Fantagio reiterated, 'Out of concern that Aroha (the official fandom name) might suddenly need a place to stay in an unexpected situation, the monks at Sununsa graciously offered free lodging and meals. We assure that there was no profit motive other than consideration from both us and the monks of Sununsa.'
Fantagio stated, 'After deep discussion and in accordance with the opinions of Aroha, we have decided to immediately close Moon's Space at Sununsa on December 3rd at 8 PM. Our staff went to Sununsa with a heart only for Moonbin and prepared the space with great care for several days. We earnestly request that you do not distort or provoke Fantagio staff's feelings for Moonbin.'
Finally, 'We clearly state that Fantagio has no financial interests with Sununsa and announce that we will take strong legal action against the distribution of false rumors in the future. We thank the monks and officials of Sununsa for accommodating Moon's Space at Guukcheongsa and apologize for any concern caused by the controversy surrounding Moon's Space.'
Previously, ASTRO's fandom claimed that Fantagio moved Moonbin's memorial space 4 hours away from Seoul and displayed his personal belongings despite strong opposition from fans, accusing the agency of exploiting his life for tourism.
An online flyer titled 'Condemning Fantagio' containing these allegations was circulated on social media.
Moonbin, who debuted as a member of the six-member boy group ASTRO in 2016, was active with various songs like 'Baby,' 'Crazy Sexy Cool,' 'Confession,' 'I'll Be There,' and 'Candy Sugar Pop.'
This year, he released the mini-album 'INCENSE' with fellow member Sanha in the unit Moonbin&Sanha and conducted a fan-con world tour. He also served as an MC for MBC M and MBC Every1's music show 'Show Champion' for 2 years and 8 months.
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i don't think akp ever posted an article explaining this controversy when it arose but basically, his memorial (moon's space) was originally at guukcheongsa temple, and it was implied it would be there permanently, but it was rather suddenly closed and moved to sununsa at the end of november. guukcheongsa was apparently a little difficult to get to logistically but sununsa is very far away from seoul, so fans were a little confused by this, although fantagio stated that temple stays were available at sununsa and that the temple was willing to provide free lodging and a meal to fans who were there late. at this new memorial at sununsa, they were also going to display some of his personal items including clothing, letters from his family, etc., which some fans took issue with.
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while fans were looking into the sudden move from one temple to the other, someone posted on social media (idk if it was on twitter first but that's where i saw it) that the head monk from sununsa temple was a director (on the board) of a university where fantagio has a financial partnership related to promoting korean music/culture/tourism. this led to people accusing fantagio of getting some sort of financial kickback from driving fans to the sununsa temple, making it more of a tourist attraction than a memorial. people who had visited the original moon's space also mentioned that the price of candles (something you could buy and write messages on to leave at the memorial) had more than doubled since moon's space had opened, and another visitor claimed they'd overheard fantagio staff who were tasked with cleaning up the memorial complain about the task and call it annoying. fans took all of this as evidence supporting the idea that fantagio was using moon's space to make money. this added to complaints about the personal items being displayed (fans were saying the display was disrespectful, the items should go to his family, etc., although i'd like to note there's no evidence they were being displayed without his family's permission) led fans to protest online, so the hashtag "boycott fantagio" has been trending for a few days.
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anyway, these are the things that led up to this response from fantagio. my personal opinion on all this is it was fair of fans to call for some transparency regarding the arrangement between fantagio and sununsa, and i don't think this response addresses all of the fans' concerns, but claiming the display was disrespectful to his family was an unsupported assumption. and so far it doesn't sound like fantagio is going to be replacing this memorial with any other memorial, so i guess we all have to ask ourselves if it was worth it. there's a fan-funded forest erected in his memory that people can visit, sure, and that's nice, but moon's space was where his friends and loved ones went and left their messages, so it's still a loss.