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The Moon Rises over Dalmagi Park: Busan Metropolitan City Hosts the Traveling Curated Exhibition “Moon Journey: Busan Moon Jars”

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Busan Metropolitan City, led by Mayor Park Heong-joon, announced that it will host the traveling curated exhibition “Moon Journey: Busan Moon Jars,” linking Haeundae Dalmagi Park and Busan Museum, from today (the 26th) through August 30.

This exhibition connects a representative white porcelain artifact of the Joseon Dynasty, the moon jar (Baekja Daeho, designated as a national treasure), with the contemporary installation work Re:moon by Busan-born installation artist Han Won-seok. It is a cultural project that highlights Busan’s traditional cultural heritage alongside contemporary art.

The exhibition begins with the curated exhibition “The Moon, a Park Where It Lingers” at Haeundae Dalmagi Park, and continues through the permanent exhibition halls and outdoor garden exhibition at Busan Museum, presenting a new urban cultural circulation structure that links parks and museums.

At Dalmagi Park, from today (the 26th) through March 31, the large-scale installation work Re:moon by Busan-born installation artist Han Won-seok will be on display.

Han Won-seok is a contemporary artist and architect from Busan who works between Korea and the United Kingdom. Based on architectural engineering, he has continuously pursued installation art grounded in structural thinking and spatial sensibility. Using industrial waste and urban memory as his primary materials, he has developed a site-specific installation aesthetic that reflects social and historical contexts through art.

His major works include The Bell of King Seongdeok made from 3,650 discarded speakers, Cheomseongdae realized with 1,450 discarded headlights, and the large-scale installation The Boundary of Perception: Contemplation into a Black Hole, set against the backdrop of the Dongil Rubber Belt factory in Busan. Through these works, he has artistically reinterpreted the labor and urban traces of the industrialization era.

The work Re:moon installed at Dalmagi Park is a moon jar-shaped installation created by recycling approximately 600 discarded automobile headlights, conveying messages of the “recovery of dead light” and the “cycle of nature.”

Standing at approximately four meters in height, the large-scale installation was first unveiled at the 2025 Seoul Lantern Festival at Cheonggyecheon, where it received strong positive responses from both visitors and the art community.

True to its name, Dalmagi Park is a space symbolically associated with welcoming and viewing the moon, and this exhibition is being recognized as a case in which the park’s identity and artistic message blend naturally.

Through this exhibition, Busan Metropolitan City plans to expand parks beyond simple leisure spaces into civic cultural venues where nature, art, and contemplation converge, while promoting the revitalization of park culture through public art.

In particular, by combining the site-specific characteristics of Dalmagi Park with the symbolic element of the moon, the exhibition has been designed as an environmental and public art experience that allows citizens to encounter culture and art naturally within their everyday park visits. It is expected to offer both residents and tourists a special nighttime landscape and contemplative experience during the exhibition period, including the First Full Moon of the Lunar Year on March 3, 2026.

In addition, Busan Museum will present Joseon-era white porcelain moon jars (national treasures) in its permanent exhibition galleries in connection with the Dalmagi Park exhibition period. From June 29, Re:moon will be reinstalled in the outdoor garden of Busan Museum, continuing the traveling exhibition.

Furthermore, an exhibition linked to the special exhibition “The Joseon Royal Court and World Heritage,” planned to commemorate the hosting of the 48th Session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Busan in July, will also be promoted, aiming to highlight Busan’s historical and cultural stature both domestically and internationally.

QR codes will be installed at the base of the artwork and throughout the exhibition venues to interlink exhibition information between Dalmagi Park and Busan Museum, enabling visitors to experience traditional artifacts and contemporary art as a single, connected narrative.

This outdoor curated exhibition at Dalmagi Park is being carried out as part of a park culture planning project in cooperation with the Busan Landscape Architecture Association. Its purpose is to present new possibilities for public space utilization by discovering cultural and artistic content mediated through parks.

In planning the exhibition, the Busan Landscape Architecture Association participated in the overall exhibition design and presentation of Re:moon. Through an exhibition composition that organically combines landscape-based spatial interpretation, artistic expression, and environmental messaging, the project aims to demonstrate how parks can function as cultural platforms where citizens and art come together.

Through this initiative, Busan Metropolitan City plans to present citizens with examples of public space utilization that integrate landscape architecture, art, and the environment, while expanding park culture and fostering broader public appreciation for the cultural value of natural spaces within the city.

An Cheol-su, Director of the Green City Bureau of Busan Metropolitan City, stated, “This exhibition is a meaningful example of how parks can be expanded into public assets that embrace culture and art through cooperation with the Busan Landscape Architecture Association,” adding, “We will continue to discover park culture content that naturally permeates citizens’ daily lives.”