Museum 1
A two-storey contemporary art museum in Busan’s Centum City, built around room-scale LED media environments alongside installations and other contemporary art
Large-scale media art, video, installations, photography, painting, sculpture and ceramics, with exhibitions designed for active viewing
A roughly 2,314-square-metre two-storey interior whose largest rooms use LED and LCD surfaces across floors, walls and ceilings, with smaller galleries for object-based works
Museum 1’s permanent display system gives digital work a room-sized scale across the floor, walls and ceiling. Smaller galleries add installations and object-based contemporary art around the large media rooms
Character
Across Museum 1’s two floors, LED and LCD displays cover the floor, walls and ceiling of the main media spaces. The museum occupies about 2,314 square metres in Centum City, and the display system is built into the galleries
About 80 million LEDs are used across the museum. Moving-image work fills the largest rooms, while installations, photography, painting, sculpture and ceramics add smaller-scale works elsewhere. The artists and individual works change with exhibitions; the display system remains a permanent part of the museum
The experience
The main media rooms are the immediate draw. A single moving work can spread across several surfaces, so it is worth watching a sequence unfold before moving on. There is no single screen to face in the largest rooms; changing where you stand changes how much of the floor, walls and ceiling you can take in at once
Smaller rooms and object-based works break up the large LED environments. The museum is compact, but time-based works can hold you in one room for several minutes. The two-storey layout keeps the large media rooms and smaller galleries close together. Korea Tourism Organization suggests roughly 90 to 120 minutes for a typical visit. On a shorter visit, watching at least one large media sequence all the way through gives a better sense of the format than moving immediately from room to room
History
The institution opened in August 2019 as Museum DAH. It was founded by the media-art duo col.l.age+ together with the art production company Kunst1. High-resolution LED and LCD surfaces were part of the building from the start
Korea JoongAng Daily reported at the opening that the founders wanted to broaden what could count as art, using furniture, objects, digital images and designed environments alongside conventional artworks. The institution reopened under the Museum 1 name in March 2022. Its current program continues to combine large-scale media work with installations and other contemporary art
Before you go
Travel light: large backpacks, food and drinks, and tripods are not allowed in the galleries
For large groups, arrange the visit in advance. Group rates apply from 30 people, and the museum asks for reservations at least seven days before the visit
- Hours
- Open Monday–Friday 10:00–19:00 and weekends/public holidays 10:00–20:00. Last entry is one hour before closing
- Admission
- General admission: adults KRW 18,000; ages 14–19 KRW 15,000; children 36 months–13 years KRW 13,000; eligible special-category visitors KRW 11,000. Group rates apply from 30 people with advance reservation
- Access
- Groups of 30 or more should apply at least seven days ahead. Food and drinks, backpacks and tripods are not allowed in the galleries
- Transit
- From Centum City Station on Busan Metro Line 2, use Exit 6 or 8; the museum is about five minutes away on foot