The Basement of Yujin Sangga Abandoned for 50 Years Reborn as an 'Open Art Space'

Renovated into 250m-long 'Hongje Yuyeon' through Seoul Public Art Project
Open daily until 10 PM... 3D holograms and multimedia artworks in one place

Installation artwork 'Flowing Light_The Narrative of Light (by Myun)' at Hongje Yuyeon.

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] The basement of Yujin Shopping Center located at Hongje Intersection in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, has been reborn as a path of light art filled with public art and is being unveiled to the public for the first time. The previously inaccessible 250-meter underground section has been transformed into an artistic space called 'Hongje Yuyeon (弘濟流緣)' where the Hongje Stream flows.

Seoul City announced on the 1st that through the public art project 'Seoul is a Museum,' it has excavated the lower space of Yujin Shopping Center, which was built in the 1970s as an anti-tank defense base during the North-South confrontation and as the first mixed-use residential-commercial building, after 50 years, creating an open space where any citizen can have a special artistic experience.

Hongje Yuyeon preserves the original form of the space as much as possible and serves as an exhibition stage for artists presenting new forms of public art through light, sound, color, and technology, as well as an art playground for citizens.

Along the waterway flowing between about 100 pillars supporting the building, eight works including installation art, lighting art, media art, and sound art have been installed to create a fantastic atmosphere, and especially, artist Jin Ki-jong’s 'Mise-en-sc?ne_Hongje Yeonga' is the first public art to use 3D holograms, allowing viewers to enjoy unique scenes where videos depicting the ecology of Hongje Stream appear three-dimensionally on the screen.

The light art piece 'Warmth,' which connects 42 pillars with light, offers a unique experience as if walking into the middle of the Hongje Stream waterway, and interactive technology is applied where the color of the lighting filling the space changes when body temperature is detected by designated sensors, breaking the fixed notions of traditional public art.

Citizen participation works can also be found, such as the glow-in-the-dark mural 'Hongje Yuyeon Future Ecosystem' completed by 20 students from nearby Inwang Elementary and Hongje Elementary Schools, and 'Hongje Manicha,' which features warm messages from 1,000 citizens engraved on modules that can be rotated and appreciated.

Hongje Yuyeon will be open to the public daily from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. starting with the lighting ceremony at 2 p.m. on the 1st, and the community space will be open 24 hours.

Moon Seok-jin, Mayor of Seodaemun-gu, said, "I am glad that through the Seoul is a Museum project, we have been able to open an art space that residents can easily access nearby," adding, "We will strive to operate the space comfortably and activate the place so that Hongje Yuyeon can become a source of comfort in the daily lives closed off by the COVID-19 pandemic and a representative tourism and art resource of Seodaemun."