Former Seoul Station marks centennial with poetic art exhibition

Just steps away from today's bustling Seoul Station stands its century-old predecessor, now reborn as a space for art and memories.

A special exhibition there is inviting people to rediscover the space under the theme of "paradise."

Park Hyo-been takes us there.

Once a place of departures, the station now offers a different kind of arrival.

The exhibition, "Our Enchanting Paradise," brings together 50 works by 21 Korean artists, featuring sculpture, media art, virtual reality, and installations, all presented inside the century-old former Seoul Station, now reborn as Culture Station Seoul 284.

"This grand hall once echoed with train whistles and footsteps. Now, a century later, it's filled with the sound of art and imagination."

Curators say the idea of "paradise" wasn't drawn from distant utopias, but from the very emotions this space once held: anticipation, hope and relief.

"The old Seoul Station represents both departures and arrivals. We wanted to show that paradise isn't one fixed idea. It's a journey each of us makes from our own place, in our own way."

In the main hall, once the heart of the station, a large-scale digital work by Hwang Se-jin reimagines a traditional Korean landscape painting, blurring the line between memory and illusion.

"I was surprised by how diverse and unexpected the artworks were. The media art in the main hall really left an impression."

Roh Jin-ah's "Evolutionary Chimera" blinks and responds like a real person.

Her AI-powered sculpture, with human eyes and voice, challenges the boundaries between life and machine, reminding us that in an age where nature and technology blur, we are called to rethink what paradise truly means.

"We think the exhibition is nice and we like the mix of old things with new and modern things."

"For me, it was the talking face downstairs with the moving eyes. It was like something new and different."

In a station once filled with departures and returns, art now fills in with meaning.

In its century of change, it offers not only history but also a moment of reflection through art.

Park Hyo-been, Arirang News.