Korean Art Odyssey 'Hallyu!' exhibit redefines global presentation of Korean culture

Installation view of "Hallyu! The Korean Wave" exhibition at Museum Rietberg in Zurich, Switzerland, showing a wall of K-pop light sticks / Courtesy of Museum Rietberg

ZURICH — In Switzerland, where many first encountered Korean pop culture through the K-drama “Crash Landing on You” — featuring iconic scenes filmed at Iseltwald, Jungfraujoch and the Munster Bridge — a different kind of Korean phenomenon took hold this year. Museum Rietberg in Zurich drew an unusually varied audience for “Hallyu! The Korean Wave,” a traveling exhibition that ran from April to August and offered a glimpse into how global perceptions of Korea are shifting.

On a typical August afternoon, the museum buzzed with an eclectic mix of visitors from elderly subscribers wandered through the show with catalogues in hand to a costume enthusiast lingered over the intricate folds of hanbok (traditional Korean attire). Teenagers decked out in K-pop merch took selfies in front of multicolored light sticks and idol costumes and their parents followed an on-screen dance tutorial for PSY’s “That That,” while nearby visitors paused to read about Korea’s rapid modernization.

“We saw this exhibition on Instagram,” said Stray Kids fans Lena, 17, and Winona, 16, from Germany as they made their way through the galleries. “We came for the idols, but we learned a lot more about Korea.”

That meeting of pop culture and tradition is exactly what “Hallyu!” set out to achieve. Originated at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) and now touring through Boston, San Francisco, Zurich and soon Canberra, the exhibition illustrates how Korean art shows worldwide are embracing pop culture, digital innovation and interactive experiences and broadening their reach as global interest in Korean culture continues to grow.

"Hallyu! The Korean Wave" exhibition at Victoria & Albert Museum in London in 2022 incorporated pop culture elements such as "Squid Game" to make Korean culture more accessible and engaging for global audiences. Courtesy of Victoria & Albert Museum

Revolutionizing exhibition concepts

The exhibition drew praise for reshaping the way Korean culture is presented at museums, making it feel immediate, relevant and accessible to global audiences.

For Rosalie Kim, V&A's curator of the Korean collection and lead curator behind “Hallyu!,” it was an opportunity to reimagine how Korea could be presented in Western museums — not as a relic of dynastic history or a footnote in global contemporary art, but as a vibrant, living culture that speaks directly to today’s audiences.

“So far, exhibitions about Korea overseas are all about the glorious past — Goryeo, Joseon ... But this is something very difficult. It is quite niche and something difficult that the audience finds relatable,” Kim said.

On the other end of the spectrum, she explained, contemporary Korean art “is completely globalized,” and often fails to offer deeper insight into Korean society. “None of them are something that most visitors are going to see and even if they go they don’t necessarily bring an insight into Korean society today.”

“Hallyu!” was designed to bridge that gap through K-pop, K-drama, beauty trends, digital fandom and everyday design.

“I think the point of the exhibition was really to make Korea accessible and relatable. This is a question that is constantly on my mind as a curator,” Kim said. “We are in a Western imperialistic institution set up in the 19th century (and) have a tiny collection of Korea compared to that of China or Japan and it is often an artwork collection rather than a sort of strategic field. So it’s very difficult to represent Korea in a Western museum.”

Moon Jar Dress by Korean designer Minju Kim was included in Victoria & Albert Museum's "Hallyu! The Korean Wave" exhibition, showcasing how contemporary Korean artists bridge traditional and modern elements. Courtesy of Victoria & Albert Museum

The exhibit maps the rise of Korea’s pop culture phenomenon, beginning with Korea’s rapid postwar transformation, using archival photographs, posters and Nam June Paik’s video sculpture to set the stage. Then it moves through the explosive rise of K-dramas and K-film, featuring costumes from “Squid Game” and a recreated set from “Parasite.”

K-pop and fandom culture take center stage with stage outfits worn by aespa and ATEEZ and an interactive dance challenge, while the final portion of the exhibit spotlights Korea’s beauty and fashion industries, tracing cosmetics packaging from the 13th century to today and presenting more than 20 looks by contemporary designers from Korea and its diaspora — including pieces worn by celebrities such as RM of BTS.

The exhibition overturns the usual cultural script, shifting Korea from the margins to the center of the story.

“It was looking at [Korean pop culture] from a non-Western angle and reversing the perspective on the idea that pop culture is something that is the asset of the West,” the curator explained.

“Most museums with collections of Korean art [are] institutions that have a long historical collection. So I think this exhibition was, for them, something very fresh that took Korea to a different angle, using contemporary content to highlight the past... I think that has changed the way other museums started to look at their collection.”

The ripple effect extended well beyond London. Following its successful debut at V&A in 2022, the show traveled to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco in 2024 and Museum Rietberg in Zurich this year.

“Hallyu! The Korean Wave” at Museum Rietberg in Zurich features English typography styled to evoke the forms of the Korean alphabet, Hangeul. Courtesy of Museum Rietberg

Localizing for Swiss audience

At Museum Rietberg in Zurich, “Hallyu!” reset how the Swiss museum engages with Korea. It is only the second Korea-focused show in the institution’s history.

“In fact, we only had two exhibitions on Korea until now in this museum,” said Khanh Trinh, curator for Japanese and Korean art at Rietberg. “The first one (‘Korea — The Ancient Kingdoms’) was 25 years ago and it was also a traveling exhibition on only traditional Korean art.”

That show, organized with the National Museum of Korea, stood in contrast to the broad cultural sweep of “Hallyu!,” which Trinh saw as a rare chance to connect contemporary Korean pop culture with deeper historical and social roots.

“We thought that the concept is quite interesting, because it shows you Korea from a point of view that is more well-known today — at least here in Europe or in Switzerland, people know now about Korea through K-dramas on Netflix or K-pop,” she said.

“So we thought, this is a good opportunity to feature Korea ... in a more comprehensive way. It’s not only the contemporary popular culture, but also the background of this popular culture. And to stress on this link between popular culture and the traditional culture and customs of Korea.”

To localize the Zurich presentation, Trinh incorporated uniquely Swiss elements. She reached out to K-pop cover dance teams in Switzerland and included their videos opposite the museum’s own playful remake of PSY’s “Gangnam Style” music video, filmed in front of its iconic Emerald pavilion. In the K-drama section, stills from “Crash Landing on You” were added to draw in curious local fans. She also updated the exhibition with magazines featuring newer idols like Stray Kids, who were not included in the original London show.

A recreated bathroom set from the award-winning film "Parasite," part of "Hallyu! The Korean Wave" exhibition at Museum Rietberg in Zurich, Switzerland / Courtesy of Museum Rietberg

Other additions emphasized Switzerland’s historical links to Korea.

“Because Switzerland belongs to those four countries (involved in the Korean War armistice monitoring), we have a diary of someone who was stationed in Panmunjeom in the 1950s,” she explained.

The exhibition also spurred deeper institutional engagement with Korean art at Rietberg, where Korea has historically been underrepresented in the museum’s 32,600-object collection, originated from non-European collection of Eduard von der Heydt.

“This is the first big acquisition of the museum for Korean art,” Trinh said proudly, referring to an 18th-century moon jar purchased specifically for the exhibition. The original V&A show had included a moon jar on loan from the British Museum, but Rietberg acquired its own to better anchor the historical narrative.

“We are very proud of this beautiful piece of moon jar,” she added.

The touring exhibition will make its final stop at the National Museum of Australia (NMA) in Canberra this December.

“We can’t wait to welcome ‘Hallyu! The Korean Wave’ in December, in what will be an Australian exclusive for Canberra and a first for the southern hemisphere. ‘Hallyu!’ is a big, bright and bold exhibition that channels South Korea’s incredible creative energy, which has captured the imagination of fans worldwide. Korea is breaking new ground in fashion, art, music, design, drama, cinema and technology, and the exhibition captures this stunning phenomenon,” NMA director Katherine McMahon said.

“Previous international blockbusters at the National Museum in Canberra have proved incredibly popular, and we have no doubt that this show and the exciting programming we have planned around it will draw visitors from across the country and the region.”

There were more requests to mount this popular exhibit, given ever-increasing cultural power of Korea, but Kim of V&A noted that the show has to come to an end since some artifacts have to return home for the next exhibit, shedding new light on Korean culture at the V&A.

“I have to stop the tour because I needed the objects to come back for another project. We continue to have requests, but we can't do,” Kim said, hinting further, newer explorations of Korean culture at the museum.