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“Reinterpreting the Future Busan Port”… “Busan 2050: Beyond the Waves” Opens at the Vault Gallery

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Busan Modern and Contemporary History Museum announced that it will hold the special exhibition “Busan 2050: Beyond the Waves” at the Vault Gallery on the first basement floor of its main building from today (May 29) through September 27.

The exhibition was organized to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the opening of Busan Port and explores the new possibilities and roles of Busan as a maritime capital through the lens of contemporary art amid future scenarios shaped by climate change and rising sea levels.

Through this exhibition, the museum aims to offer visitors an unfamiliar yet thought-provoking experience by artistically imagining the future of Busan and Busan Port that has yet to arrive, encouraging a renewed perspective on both the present and the past.

“Busan 2050: Beyond the Waves” artistically reinterprets the future of Busan based on the imagined premise of “transformation caused by rising sea levels in a future era.”

The exhibition unfolds through a fictional narrative in which “although carbon neutrality was achieved by 2050, rising sea levels caused by climate change fundamentally transformed the geography and lifestyles of cities around the world.”

The exhibition is divided into two major parts, with participating artists expressing visions of future Busan through diverse contemporary art forms including craft, design, installation, sculpture, painting, and architecture.

Part 1, “A New Dialogue Between Humanity and the Sea: Floating Cities,” explores new spaces and communities built upon floating cities above the ocean in a future where rising sea levels have reduced habitable land.

Artists ETC Blank, Lee Min-hye, Lee Hye-seon, Choi Hye-won, and Park Hyun-woo participate in this section, presenting floating cities not merely as technological alternatives but as platforms for a new civilization in which humans and marine ecosystems coexist.

Part 2, “New Routes Opened by the Sea: The Port City of Art,” examines the future of Busan North Port and the emerging Arctic shipping routes created by melting polar ice.

Artists Byeon Dae-yong, Lee Eun-jung, Goddarda, Kwon Yi-cheol, Choi Yoon-young, and STDIO1750 interpret the tensions and conflicts arising between development and preservation, environment and industry, and humanity and nature through artistic language, imagining the new culture and landscapes that the future maritime city of Busan may encounter.

Through this exhibition, the museum seeks to expand the historical significance of the 150th anniversary of the opening of Busan Port into perspectives on the present and future while newly illuminating Busan’s identity as a maritime city through art.

The exhibition is open free of charge to all visitors. More information regarding the exhibition and related programs is available on the museum website at busan.go.kr/mmch/ or by phone at +82-51-607-8044.

During the exhibition period, additional public engagement programs such as artist talks and educational programs for children will also be held. Detailed schedules will be announced later through the museum website.

Kim Ki-yong, Director of Busan Modern and Contemporary History Museum, stated, “This exhibition is a special attempt to artistically imagine the future that has yet to come, beyond Busan’s past and present, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the opening of Busan Port.” He added, “I hope it will provide an opportunity for people to reflect together on how humanity, cities, and nature can coexist amid the climate crisis and changes in the marine environment.”