Museum 1 in Haeundae, Busan is an incredibly immersive art experience. LED screens are combined with physical art pieces to create a stunning environment that moves and changes all around you. Museum 1 is operated by Kunst 1, bringing together multiple artists, designers, planners, and engineers to create a media art exhibition. The two-story museum utilizes 80 million LED screens to bring to life concepts combining art, philosophy, and aesthetics.
I got to visit Museum 1 back in 2021 during the Super Nature exhibition. Each exhibition lasts around a year, with the current one being Signs of Loss with sub-exhibits being Unexpected Scenery and A Leaked Story. The translation on their website about this exhibition reads, "'Signs of Loss' is a mourning for the times when precious individual values are overlooked due to excessive information and capital, losing the subject and chasing stimulating desires, and it is an exhibition where we look back and discover the value of what is truly important in life." This exhibition will run through the end of August.
Museum 1 is made up of a large central room covered in LED screens across the floors and up the wall to the second floor. Surrounding it are multiple smaller rooms with floor to ceiling LEDs and areas with more physical art continuing upstairs. There is also a cafe upstairs with tables looking down on the main room.
The Super Nature exhibition flowed from room to room with beautiful tiles, mosaics, and floral prints over every surface. As you first entered, you were surrounded by greenery hanging around vibrantly colored displays including statues of deer with floral mosaics, a kitchen overgrown with plants, LED screens in picture frames scattered along the walls. Calming music played throughout the entire venue. Other rooms included various statues of flower-covered objects, an interactive LED koi pond on a table, and an LED portrayal of the Last Supper across the wall.
Inside the main room, the LEDs rotated through different images of rain, forests, sea creatures, and more with at least twenty minutes of unique visuals. You can sit on the floor and be fully immersed or watch from the second floor for a full view. The side rooms each have their own slew of images and colors swirling around you, accented with statues and furniture. One room, called Fall Asleep in the Woods, featured two beds where you could lay down and watch the room around you change throughout peaceful imagery of forests and wildlife. Another room had mirrors on all of the walls and LEDS on the ceiling and floor. They showed dizzying floral patterns above and waves below.
I went close to closing, so I had a limited time there, but I stayed every minute that I could. I recommend giving yourself plenty of time to explore, relax, and immerse yourself in the full experience of each room of the exhibition. Tickets are ₩18,000 for adults but if you buy them on Naver they're 20% off at ₩14,400. There are lockers outside to leave your bags.
Kunst 1 also has an art room and jazz gallery in Seoul and a project called Artist Bag 168 or 168 Stairs in Busan where they have a street art installation that they plan to extend into the surrounding area revitalizing it with art installations and murals.
The intricate details, immersive LEDs, and beautiful themes make Museum 1 a must see if you visit Haeundae in Busan. I could have visited Super Nature a hundred times, and am so sad to have missed their other exhibitions. If you get the chance, head to see Signs of Loss before it ends, even though I'm sure the exhibition that replaces it will be just as stunning.
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