Gwangju Dong-gu Unveils Year-End and New Year Nighttime Exhibition at 'Light Fortress'

Gwangju Dong-gu will present a nighttime exhibition at the Light Fortress during the year-end and New Year holidays. Photo by Gwangju Dong-gu

On January 7, Gwangju Dong-gu announced that it is presenting a nighttime landscape exhibition at the Light Fortress area to celebrate the upcoming Year of the Byeongo and to invigorate nighttime tourism in the city center around the National Asia Culture Center district during the year-end and New Year holidays.

This exhibition, which began at the end of last year, is themed "Light Connecting the End of the Year and the Beginning of the New Year." It features displays that use light to express the warmth of the year-end atmosphere and hopeful messages for the New Year. Designed as an urban nighttime exhibition that anyone-citizens and visitors alike-can enjoy, it also serves as a public photo zone where people can create special memories.

The stone totems symbolizing the Light Fortress have been decorated with designs that capture the sentiments of the year-end and New Year holidays, offering a unique blend of tradition and modernity. At the center of the exhibition space, an arched "Gate of Light" welcomes visitors. After passing through the gate illuminated with golden lights, a pathway of light leads up to a photo zone at the top of the stairs.

Alongside the "2026 New Year Signage," a symbolic space has been created to usher in the New Year. The use of stair lighting and LED landscape lights adds a three-dimensional light effect, ensuring a safe and visually engaging viewing environment even at night.

Starting January 15, the upper gallery space at the Light Fortress will also host an exhibition of wood engraving artworks created over the past year by students from the Donggu Maru Village Community Center. Through these works, crafted using traditional wood engraving techniques, the exhibition aims to convey the value of everyday culture and art to citizens and provide another cultural appreciation space that harmonizes with the nighttime landscape exhibition.

This nighttime landscape exhibition will run until February, and it is expected to revitalize winter nighttime tourism in the city center and energize the local commercial district.

An official from Dong-gu said, "The Light Fortress year-end and New Year nighttime landscape exhibition was designed so that citizens can naturally enjoy culture in their daily lives and create special memories with family, partners, and friends. We will continue to expand nighttime tourism content in the city center, focusing on the National Asia Culture Center district."