Centre Pompidou Hanwha opened in Seoul on June 4, 2026, launching a four-year partnership with the Hanwha Foundation of Culture inside a renovated 63 Building annex. The new museum debuts with The Cubists: Inventing Modern Vision, bringing 91 works by 43 artists from Paris to South Korea.
Centre Pompidou Hanwha and the Hanwha Foundation of Culture Partnership
Parisian modern art has found a striking new home along the Han River. Conceived as a luminous box of light, the newly opened Centre Pompidou Hanwha transforms a former aquarium annex at the foot of Seoul’s iconic 63 Building into a four-story cultural venue designed by French architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte. The opening marks a major milestone for both the Hanwha Foundation of Culture. Paris’ Centre Pompidou officially arrives in Seoul as the new Centre Pompidou Hanwha held its opening ceremony on May 19th, 2026, inside the transformed annex of the city’s iconic 63 Building. Developed through a four-year partnership between the French institution and the Hanwha Foundation of Culture, the museum launches ahead of its public debut on June 4th with The Cubists: Inventing Modern Vision, a sweeping exhibition tracing the emergence and evolution of Cubism through works from the Pompidou collection. Designed by Jean-Michel Wilmotte—who also led the renovations of Incheon International Airport—Centre Pompidou Hanwha is housed in a former annex of the iconic 63 Building in Yeouido, Seoul’s main financial district. Rising over four floors, the building includes two vast exhibition galleries, each measuring approximately 1,500 square metres. The pre-existing structure, formerly home to an aquarium, has been redesigned to create a true “box of light”. Its translucent double-glazed envelope allows natural light to penetrate deep into the building during the day and, once night falls, to radiate outward and illuminate the city. Its curves are inspired by traditional Korean roof tiles. Architecture of Light and the Constellation Network
The building’s architecture leans heavily into transparency. Its translucent double-glazed facade draws inspiration from the curvature of traditional Korean roof tiles, allowing natural light to flood the interior galleries during the day while radiating a warm glow outward into the Seoul skyline at night. Inside, the space provides two vast exhibition galleries measuring approximately 1,500 square meters each, introducing more than 3,000 square meters of exhibition space to the Korean capital. This Seoul outpost is part of the Centre Pompidou’s outward-facing program of partner venues. We have launched an ambitious program: ‘Constellation,’ and one of our new stars is about to begin shining,
said Laurent Le Bon, president of the Centre Pompidou, during a press conference held ahead of the grand opening of the centre’s Seoul branch on Tuesday.
The Cubists: Inventing Modern Vision Exhibition
The Cubists: Inventing Modern Vision
Running until October 4, the museum’s inaugural exhibition introduces the museum with a sweeping look at the movement that transformed modern art. The opening exhibition features 91 works by 43 artists and traces Cubism from its emergence.
The landmark space, designed by Jean-Michel Wilmotte, was completely transformed into a new cultural venue, featuring a translucent white box-like structure reminiscent of a light box. At the lobby, the iconic sculpture associated with Cubism and early modernism The Large Horse
by Raymond Duchamp-Villon, the older brother of Marcel Duchamp is on view beneath a translucent ceiling that casts a soft glow over the work.
Korea Focus and Local Avant-Garde Dialogue
At a press preview Tuesday, Hanwha Foundation of Culture Chairman Lee Sung-soo said the museum opening is the result of several years of preparation
to bring a world-class modern art institution to Seoul. Centre Pompidou Hanwha is the latest addition to the French institution’s global satellite venues, including Shanghai.
The stated aim of the Centre Pompidou Hanwha is to reinterpret the French museum’s collection ‘through Korea’s socio-cultural context’. Over the next four years, the Centre Pompidou Hanwha plans to present two exhibitions annually based on the Centre Pompidou’s collection, and additional presentations focused on contemporary Korean and international artistic production.
Centre Pompidou Hanwha and Shanghai West Bund Museum Partnership
Future Plans and Strategic Debates
Centre Pompidou Hanwha will operate as a four-year partnership between the Hanwha Foundation of Culture and the Centre Pompidou, marking the Pompidou’s latest international expansion in Asia following a collaboration with Shanghai’s West Bund Museum that launched in 2019.
Centre Pompidou’s spirit of interdisciplinarity and contemporaneity strongly aligns with the Hanwha Foundation of Culture’s mission to support emerging artists and connect Korean culture with the world,
a spokesperson for the foundation tells The Art Newspaper. They add that the museum will occupy a former aquarium in Yeouido that has been renovated by French architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte into a four-story venue with two main exhibition galleries.
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