Posco Donates PosArt Exhibits for the Socially Disadvantaged to the National Museum of Korea

POSCO 1% Foundation Produces Barrier-Free "Tactile Exhibits"
Created Using POSCO Group's Premium Color Steel Plate "PosArt"

The POSCO 1% Foundation announced on the 26th that it has produced PosArt-based tactile exhibits to assist museum visits for socially disadvantaged groups, including people with visual impairments, and donated them to the National Museum of Korea.

PosArt is POSCO Group's premium color steel plate, created by applying high-resolution inkjet printing technology to special steel materials. By using 3D layering technology that stacks ink in multiple layers, it can deliver image quality more than four times clearer than that of conventional color steel plates.

Delicate three-dimensional textures rendered on the 'old stele wall' using Poseuateu technology. POSCO Group

The POSCO 1% Foundation, which is funded by donations of 1% of the salaries of POSCO Group employees, has supported barrier-free exhibitions that remove physical and psychological barriers for socially disadvantaged people by applying the group’s premium color steel plate technology, PosArt.

Noting that applying PosArt technology to artworks makes it possible to express delicate three-dimensional textures, the POSCO 1% Foundation has enabled people with visual impairments to feel the texture of artworks directly with their hands. POSCO Humans, a POSCO Group social enterprise and standard workplace for persons with disabilities, was solely responsible for producing the installations. By combining steel technology with art, this has created a model case that contributes to spreading a culture of sharing.

The installations produced and donated by the POSCO 1% Foundation using PosArt consist of three types in total: a large feature wall at the entrance to the calligraphy and painting gallery (9,000 mm wide x 3,885 mm high), a tactile table that allows visitors to appreciate key calligraphic works with their fingertips, and four showcases that safely store artifacts.

The large feature wall, created as the "Wall of an Old Stele," reproduces the inscriptions of old steles with PosArt, presenting a grand spatial design that allows visitors to view the flow of Korean calligraphy at a glance. The tactile table for people with visual impairments includes explanations of the works, including braille, arranged at a height accessible for people with disabilities. In addition, tactile panels for artifacts produced using 3D layering techniques enable visitors to vividly feel, with their fingertips, the brushstrokes of great masters and the subtle movement of the brush. This also allows general visitors to enjoy a multisensory experience that extends the aesthetic value of two-dimensional works into the realm of touch.

The calligraphy and painting gallery, which the National Museum of Korea has reopened this time, is a dedicated exhibition space for calligraphy and paintings that reexamines the unique beauty of Korea’s traditional writings and paintings. Visitors can encounter the finest works of Korea’s representative masters such as Gyeomjae Jeong Seon, Danwon Kim Hongdo, and Chusa Kim Jeonghui. The gallery will be open to the public from February 26 and is expected to operate as a permanent exhibition for the next 10 years, thereby helping to expand opportunities to appreciate Korea’s traditional calligraphy and painting.

In December last year, the POSCO 1% Foundation also produced a "custom-made Hanji dryer" using POSCO stainless steel with excellent corrosion resistance and durability, in order to solve challenges in the Hanji (traditional Korean paper) drying process, and donated it to a Hanji master artisan.

A foundation representative said, "By combining POSCO Group’s technological capabilities with a culture of sharing, we will continue to practice the group’s brand slogan, 'Adding Value to the World,' in the field of arts welfare for socially disadvantaged people. We will strive to expand a barrier-free environment in which everyone can fully experience art, by infusing warm technology into cold steel."