Baek Byung-yeul is a journalist at The Korea Times focused on cultural content, including films and cultural events in South Korea. You can contact him at baekby@koreatimes.co.kr to share your insights.
Venice Architecture Biennale's Korean Pavilion returns to Seoul
Attendees look at past exhibition records during a press conference for the homecoming exhibition of the Korean Pavilion from the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale at the ARKO Art Center in Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap
By Baek Byung-yeul
The Korean Pavilion from the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale has returned to Seoul to share its record-breaking success with local audiences.
The homecoming exhibition, titled "Little Toad, Little Toad: Unbuilding Pavilion," opened at the ARKO Art Center in Seoul on Friday and runs through April 5. The exhibition showcases a highly successful seven-month run in Italy last year, where the pavilion welcomed 174,230 visitors, the highest attendance in the history of the Korean Pavilion at the architecture biennale.
"The 2025 Korean Pavilion saw massive interest from the global public," Chung Dah-young, the artistic director of the exhibition, said during a press conference Thursday.
"About 55.2 percent of the total visitors to the Venice Biennale visited our pavilion, which is the best performance we have ever achieved for an architectural exhibition."
The exhibition explores the architecture of the Korean Pavilion itself as it celebrates its 30th anniversary. The exhibition uses a traditional Korean children's song about a toad to describe the pavilion.
While last year's exhibition was about smells and feelings, the returning exhibition focuses on the building itself and what it means for Korea.
"The Seoul exhibition is rearranged to show the process and strategies we used in Venice," Chung said. "The original show in Venice was made specifically for that building. For the Seoul show, we changed and updated the artworks and records to fit better inside the ARKO Art Center."
The first floor of the gallery serves as an open space for discussion, featuring historical data and critical edits regarding the pavilion’s 30-year history. The second floor features works by participating architects Kim Hyun-jong, Park Hee-chan, Yang Ye-na and Lee Da-mi. The artists looked at the building in a new way to show that the pavilion is more than just a place for one country and is actually a space that everyone can share.
Throughout the exhibition period, ARKO will host eight special activities, including curator talks and artist talks. On March 21, a special forum will take place with participants discussing the sustainability of the Venice Biennale.
The exhibition is open from Tuesday to Sunday, and admission is free.