The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (Minister HWANG Hee, MCST) together with the Korea Creative Content Agency (President JO Hyun-rae, KOCCA) present “Korea: Cubically Imagined,” a showcase of today’s leading creative voices from Korea. The exhibition features a diverse range of experiences within 16 installations – including BTS’ performances, the film set of Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite, as well as digital design studio Design Silverfish’s AR installation inspired by Korean folklore and the city life of Seoul, among others – proposing new cultural narratives that transcend boundaries between past and future, tradition and innovation. “Korea: Cubically Imagined” will be on view in Chelsea, New York from May 2 to 14 and subsequently in Washington, D.C. from May 27 to June 9, following its successful world tours in Paris, Hong Kong, Moscow, and Beijing in 2021.

  The exhibition’s various immersive environments invite visitors to explore highlights from Korean pop culture across art and design, music, film, and more through digital technologies including AR, VR, projection mapping, the Metaverse, and other interactive media. In bringing together different genres and stories with the help of technology, each presentation aims to explore new dimensions of creativity while celebrating Korea’s rich cultural heritage.

  Highlights of the exhibition include the XR experience of BTS’ performance of Dope and DNA from the group’s online concert ‘Map of the Soul ON:E’ in 2020. With VR gears and ‘Unreal Engine’ 3D technology, visitors can explore every corner of the stage up close and interact with the performances that respond to visitors’ movement in real time. Scenes from director Bong Joon-ho’s most recent film Parasite will unfold in a multisensory VR environment with hidden metaphors from the film, while the National Museum of Korea will present two projection mapping panoramic installations showcasing historic scenes and natural landscapes of the Joseon Dynasty. Digital design studio Design Silver Fish will bring together three AR experiences based on Korean folklore stories of “household gods”, bustling scenes of city life in Seoul, and the vibrance of Cheongsachorong, or traditional Korean lanterns.

  Korea: Cubically Imagined will also feature digital design innovators d’strict, whose projection media mapping media art will reimagine nature into digital landscapes; ROOMTONE, a media artist collective specializing in VR and immersive games, who will present a surreal VR narrative about human and artificial intelligence; new media production company EASYWITH’s reinterpretation of two historical landscape paintings from the Joseon Dynasty into a room-sized, digital artwork; and a multimedia sound performance by Tacit Group based on Hangeul, the Korean alphabet. Visual artists LEE Ye Seung and KANG Yiyun will each present works that explore the interplay between art, technology, and experience, drawing heavily from contemporary Korean culture.

  MCST said “This exhibition will provide the next level and new types of Korean contents to the overseas fans. In the future, the Ministry will strongly support the environment of integrating advanced and rich contents with the state-of-the-art technology for sustainable Korean wave.”