Gyeongju comes alive: Exhibitions to see in the ancient capital during APEC and beyond

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Gyeongju comes alive: Exhibitions to see in the ancient capital during APEC and beyond

Published: 28 Oct. 2025, 15:25

LEE JIAN
[email protected]

WOO JI-WON
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

A visitors views gold crowns during the media day for the special exhibition “Silla Gold Crowns: Power and Prestige" on Oct. 27. [NEWS1]

GYEONGJU, North Gyeongsang — Once the capital of the ancient kingdom of Silla (57 B.C. – 935 A.D.), Gyeongju in North Gyeongsang is not only a place where history lives on in its royal tombs and temples, but also within its museums.

As the city prepares to welcome visitors from around the world for the 2025 APEC summit, its museums are holding exhibitions that celebrate the city's rich cultural legacy.

From shimmering gold crowns symbolizing Silla’s royal power to contemporary reinterpretations of its art, geography and religion, the Korea JoongAng Daily introduces four exhibitions in Gyeongju held during the summit period and beyond that highlight both its 992-year-long history and modern creativity.

Gyeongju National Museum

The overwhelming prestige of Silla's royalty comes alive once again at the Gyeongju National Museum, where the radiance of gold crowns shines through the dimly lit exhibition hall.

For the first time in since their discovery in 1921, six gold crowns from the "Kingdom of Gold" are being presented together at the museum.

Gold Crown from Cheonmachong Tomb [GYEONGJU NATIONAL MUSEUM]

"The gold crowns symbolize the pinnacle of royal authority in Silla and are among the most original and sophisticated masterpieces of ancient jewelry not only in East Asia but in the world," said a museum official.

Set to open to the public on Sunday, the special exhibition "Silla Gold Crowns: Power and Prestige" is being held to celebrate both the upcoming 2025 APEC summit and the museum's 80th anniversary.

The display brings together all six known crowns — from the early fifth-century Gyo-dong crown to those from the Hwangnamdaechong, Geumgwanchong, Seobongchong, Geumryeongchong and Cheonmachong tombs — along with other gold artifacts, such as crown ornaments and belts, bringing the total to 20 pieces. Among them are seven National Treasures and seven Treasures.

Of all the ancient kingdoms, Silla alone consistently refined its gold crown designs over nearly a century. Each crown features a headband topped with branch- or antler-shaped uprights, symbolizing sacred trees and transcendence, and adorned with pendants representing life and renewal.

At first glance, they may appear similar, but "each carries its own balance of tradition and innovation," said researcher Kim Dae-hwan. The Gyo-dong crown, admired for its simple beauty and displayed first in the exhibition, lacks curved jade pendants. The Geumryeongchong crown replaces jade with small gold bells, and the Seobongchong crown includes a dome-shaped inner cap topped with a bird ornament.

Gold artifacts from Cheonmachong Tomb [WOO JI-WON]

Visitors are sure to be captivated by the gold crowns and belts from Geumgwanchong, Seobongchong and Geumryeongchong, which are displayed side by side across a broad wall. At the center of the gallery, the Hwangnamdaechong crown, believed to be worn by women, radiate blinding brilliance, while the full set of gold ornaments — crown, belt, earrings and bracelets — from Cheonmachong evokes Silla's belief that wealth and authority continued into the afterlife.

Digital displays at the end of the exhibition answer some of visitors' most common questions — including whether the crowns were made of pure gold. They also show photos of the intricate craftsmanship up close.

"Silla Gold Crowns: Power and Prestige" runs through Dec. 12 at Silla History Exhibition Hall 3.

Wolji Exhibition Hall

The Gyeongju National Museum has reopened its Wolji Exhibition Hall to the public after an 18-month renovation, inviting visitors once again to explore more than 1,000 cultural assets from Unified Silla (668-935) at the Donggung Palace and Wolji Pond.

A large jar on display at the Wolji Exhibition Hall, which reopened on Oct. 17 after an 18-month renovation. [GYEONGJU NATIONAL MUSEUM]

"In addition to fully modernizing the aging facilities and creating a barrier-free environment, we focused on presenting the artifacts using the latest exhibition techniques," said researcher Lee Hak-tae. "We incorporated various media displays to help visitors understand how each relic was used and created wire installations to recreate three-dimensional scenes."

According to the museum, around 600 artifacts have been newly arranged, including 87 recently excavated pieces and 515 items that had never been displayed before.

One of the highlights is a underwater wooden planter unearthed in 1975. Revealed for the first time after conservation treatment, the pinewood planter had remained in storage for nearly half a century. To capture the feeling of the ancient planter, wire installations were used to create a three-dimensional recreation.

Underwater wooden planter [WOO JI-WON]

Other new finds include a small ivory die and a sculpture of a foreign figure believed to depict a man from western Asia, distinguished by his absence of a traditional topknot.

The exhibition also restructured several displays to allow visitors to view the relics from multiple angles. Researchers had long hoped to study the backs of the gilt-bronze Buddhist reliefs, which had previously been mounted flat against the wall. In the new layout, pieces are enclosed in glass cases that can be viewed from all sides. Some are complemented by media art illustrating their origins and iconography.

Decorative bricks carved with intricate lotus patterns, once used as paving stones, were laid flat for previous displays but have been mounted vertically so visitors can better appreciate their detailed reliefs.

Media art is incorporated elsewhere as well. At the entrance stands a massive earthen jar large enough to hold around 700 liters (1,057 gallons) — equivalent to 4,000 1.5-liter bottles. A projected media display of water helps visitors visualize its immense capacity. The Treasure-designated Gilt-bronze Wick Trimmer is displayed in a glass case equipped with a transparent screen that shows how it was once used to trim candlewicks.

A media display was shown on glass cases topped with OECD-themed screens [WOO JI-WON]

To improve accessibility, the museum installed ramps that meet modern standards, ensuring a barrier-free experience for the elderly and disabled visitors.

Gyeongju Solgeo Art Museum

Artist Park Dae-sung speaks to reporters about his art at the Solgeo Museum of Art in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang, on Oct. 21. [LEE JIAN]

The "Scent of Silla" exhibition, co-hosted by the Culture Ministry and Korea Arts Management Service Center at the Gyeongju Solgeo Art Museum, is shedding light on the Silla Dynasty's relics, geography and religion through the lens of four contemporary Korean artists: painter Park Dae-sung, painter and traditional painting restorer Kim Min, glass artist Park Sun-min and Buddhist artist Venerable Song Cheon.

The highlight of the show is Park Dae-sung's massive ink painting, "Korea Fantasy," in the very last section of the exhibit. Measuring 15 meters in width (49.2 feet) and 5 meters in height, the work depicts a sweeping panorama of Korean history and culture, including Mount Paektu's crater lake, the Bangudae Petroglyphs of Ulsan and Mount Halla's Baengnokdam crater lake.

"It took me three years just to conceptualize a piece, and I devoted the entire year of 2023 to completing it," he told reporters at the museum on Oct. 21. The 80-year-old artist is best known for landscapes and calligraphic paintings with ink.

The first section of the museum's exhibit features Kim's paintings depicting the Seokguram Buddha, Seokgatap and Dabotap, painted under a pitch black background with ground tourmaline, which sparkles and gives the painting an ethereal glow.

Kim, who is also an expert in cultural heritage and painting restoration, earned international recognition for his restoration work using traditional hanji (Korean mulberry paper). He has hosted seminars at the Louvre Museum in Paris on the preservation and restoration of cultural assets using hanji, and is regarded as a leading specialist in the restoration of cultural heritage.

The section is followed by a five-story pagoda stacked with pale blue and green glass bottles crafted by Park Sun-min. "Inspired by the glass vessels that came to Silla from the West along the Silk Road, I sought to reinterpret them in a contemporary way to embody the condensation of time," she told reporters.

"Connectivity of Time" by artist Park Seon-min features 250 pieces of recycled glassware. [GYEONGJU SOLGEO ART MUSEUM]

Park Sun-min is an artist acclaimed for her upcycled glassworks made from discarded bottles. Since 2014, she has led the "Re: bottle" project, collecting waste glass containers and transforming them into new works of art.

The third section presents works that explore the shared truths between religions through the fusion of Buddhist and Christian art, painted by the Korean monk and artist Song Cheon. His piece "Gwan-eum and Maria — Truth Has Never Left Our Side" drew significant attention at the 2024 Busan Biennale and is also featured at the Solgeo Museum's exhibit.

"The Scent of Silla" is set to run through April 26.

Wooyang Art Museum

″My Faust - Spirituality″ (1992) by Nam June Paik [WOOYANG ART MUSEUM]

After a year of renovations, the Wooyang Art Museum is now showing "Nam June Paik: Humanity in the Circuits," highlighting the namesake, renowned media artist.

It particularly focuses on Paik's works between the 1980s and 1990s, during which Paik began to view technology not merely as a means of expression or a site for audiovisual experimentation, but also as a new extension of the human spirit — deepening his exploration of collective thought. His works interlace different forms of media into a single circuit, illustrating how East and West, spirit and matter and art and technology are not separate entities but interconnected components within one vast, organic network. This concept resonates philosophically with APEC 2025's shared vision, "Building a Sustainable Tomorrow - Connect, Innovate, Prosper."

Among the highlights of the exhibition are "My Faust - Economics" and "My Faust - Spirituality," from Paik's "My Faust" video installation series, which are being shown in Korea for the first time. Created between 1989 and 1991 and inspired by Goethe's classic, the series intertwines themes of capital, ethics, time, and existence within the philosophical and technological imaginations of East and West. "Economics" visualizes the clash between capital and human values and "Spirituality" explores the possibility of memory and spirit enduring even within the finite nature of technology.

"This exhibit is not merely a small retrospective but an attempt to retrace the organic circuit that Nam June Paik built between technology, art and humanity," said the museum's organizers.

"Nam June Paik: Humanity in the Circuits" is set to run through Nov. 30.

BY LEE JIAN, WOO JI-WON [[email protected]]

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Gyeongju comes alive: Exhibitions to see in the ancient capital during APEC and beyond

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