Seoul will get its personal Centre Pompidou – and it’s about to open

Centre Pompidou Hanwha, the French cultural establishment’s first outpost in Korea, is scheduled to open on 4 June 2026 in Seoul’s 63 Constructing, a landmark on the Han River owned by the Hanwha Group. Developed by way of a partnership between the Centre Pompidou (whose Paris house is at present closed for restoration) and the Hanwha Basis of Tradition, the Centre Pompidou Hanwha is ready to develop into a brand new cultural attraction in western Seoul’s Yeouido.

Discover the brand new Centre Pompidou Hanwha

The museum is situated within the former annex of what was as soon as the tallest constructing within the South Korean capital. The renovated construction takes the type of a low, horizontally prolonged quantity clad in opaque panels. It was designed by French architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte, who oversaw a full renovation of the present annex constructing to adapt it for its new cultural use.

‘Positioned alongside the Han River inside the iconic 63 Constructing, the design takes the type of a luminous field that enhances the character of the tower itself,’ mentioned Sungsoo Lee, chairman of the Hanwha Basis of Tradition. ‘Conceived as a semi-transparent white field, the design was chosen for its means to harmonise with the encircling panorama and the present construction by way of a pure renovation of the previous conference centre house.’

The opening of the Centre Pompidou Hanwha coincides with the one hundred and fortieth anniversary of diplomatic relations between Korea and France and the twentieth birthday of the Hanwha Basis of Tradition. The brand new establishment is anticipated to function a significant cultural hub in Seoul, presenting works from the Centre Pompidou’s assortment, together with many who haven’t beforehand been proven in Korea and several other that will likely be exhibited in Asia for the primary time.

The four-storey museum consists of two large-scale exhibition halls of roughly 1,650 sq m every. Alongside exhibitions drawn from the Centre Pompidou assortment, the venue may even host exhibits and programmes developed with Korean and worldwide artists, supporting main currents in up to date artwork within the area.

For its inaugural exhibition, the museum will current ‘The Cubists: Inventing Fashionable Imaginative and prescient’ from 4 June to 4 October 2026. The shows provide an outline of Cubism in Paris between 1907 and 1927, drawing primarily from the Centre Pompidou assortment.

Whereas the unique Centre Pompidou in France is present process renovation works, its programmes will proceed by way of accomplice venues and worldwide collaborations – ‘constellation tasks’, in keeping with Laurent Le Bon, president of the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

‘Cubism was chosen for the inaugural exhibition in Seoul as a result of the Centre Pompidou holds a big assortment of Cubist masterpieces, and due to its historic significance as one of many defining inventive actions of the twentieth century,’ added Christian Briend, chief curator on the Centre Pompidou. ‘It profoundly influenced many artists all through the century and connects on to future exhibitions deliberate in Seoul.’

The Seoul Pompidou outpost is anticipated to reinterpret its Paris counterpart’s collections inside the Korean cultural context and function a cultural bridge between Korea, France, and the broader worldwide artwork world.