Traditional culture meets modern life at Hanji-themed exhibition

Sixty-nine traditional culture companies are showcasing products at the "A Journey Through Tastes" exhibition at the Shinsegae Department Store Main Store The Heritage until the 15th. The event serves as a preview for the 2027 K-Lifestyle Platform and includes a homecoming tour of the "HANJI HOUSE" exhibition, which was previously featured at Maison&Objet in Paris.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Craft & Design Foundation are hosting "A Journey Through Tastes" at the Shinsegae Department Store Main Store The Heritage 4F Museum in collaboration with Shinsegae, running until the 15th. Linked to the "2026 Today's Tradition Festival," this exhibition serves as a preview for the "K-Lifestyle Platform," which is scheduled to open in 2027.

A total of 69 traditional culture companies are participating in the exhibition, presenting a variety of products inspired by Korean tradition. Within a festival space decorated with Hanji, visitors can experience special Christmas scenery and select items that appeal to their personal tastes, observing the diverse ways traditional culture integrates into modern daily life.

An official involved in the exhibition stated, "The goal of this exhibition is to discover new possibilities for traditional culture and to ensure our traditions are enjoyed in daily life and possess industrial value through startup support. We plan to introduce various ways in which tradition meets modern daily life through crafts, living, fashion, and gastronomy."

The venue, Shinsegae Department Store Main Store The Heritage, is a restored building that served as the former headquarters of Jeil Bank in 1935, housing tradition within a space of long history. The exhibition consists of the Today's Tradition Market, Today's Tradition Stage, Today's Tradition Class, and a K-Lifestyle Platform preview.

The "Today's Tradition Market" features and sells traditional culture products across various sectors, including crafts, living, fashion, and F&B, with a focus on products from startup companies discovered and nurtured through the Korea Craft & Design Foundation's "Today's Tradition Startup Program." Visitors can examine various items and purchase products that match their preferences.

The "Today's Tradition Stage" presents a space design that combines the atmosphere of the Christmas season with traditional cultural content. Inspired by carousels and festival tents, the space is implemented using Hanji to create the feeling of being at a festival grounds. The stage blends tradition and modernity by displaying Christmas decorations alongside traditional products, reinterpreting familiar traditional culture with a new atmosphere and sensibility by combining seasonal emotions with traditional materials and content.

The "Today's Tradition Class" operates year-end and New Year guest-welcoming experience programs utilizing traditional materials and production methods. These include: "Containing Taste," which features gift wrapping using Bojagi, traditional knots, and Hanji; "Tasting Taste," which introduces traditional snacks and tea along with seasonal snack plating; and "Blooming Taste," which involves making flowers and vases that highlight the texture and formative beauty of Hanji. These programs allow visitors to naturally encounter the characteristics and production processes of traditional culture.

In this exhibition, one can also encounter the homecoming tour of 《HANJI HOUSE》, which garnered attention at 'Maison&Objet', the world's largest lifestyle fair held in Paris, France, this past September.

《HANJI HOUSE》, presented at 'Maison&Objet' in France in September, is an exhibition organized by the Korea Craft & Design Foundation to pray for the inscription of the traditional Korean paper 'Hanji' on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list at the end of 2026.
 

Hanji, a unique asset of Korea, is proving its excellent processability and utility in various industrial fields such as modern interior, furniture, packaging, art, and design, based on its unique texture and eco-friendly physical properties. In particular, as it naturally permeates daily life while possessing durability and practicality, it is drawing attention as an attractive proposal in the global design market that simultaneously demands eco-friendliness and modern sensibility.

In this exhibition, seven Korean companies from related fields participated, ranging from manufacturers and distributors that have carried on the tradition of traditional handmade Hanji to design product companies equipped with modern production systems and processing technologies. From high-quality base paper that can be used as construction material, restoration paper, or traditional paper, to sophisticated Hanji interior accessories and daily necessities, a diverse range of products tailored to contemporary market demand is presented to global buyers.
 

The space of 《HANJI HOUSE》 was directed as a showroom where modern simplicity and warm coziness coexist, by sensually visualizing the soft light permeability and airflow held by Hanji. In the special exhibition at the center of the exhibition booth, the Korean design studio SWNA placed furniture worked with Hanji as the material. This presents specific yet experimental ideas on how Hanji can be sophisticatedly integrated into modern furniture and interiors.

Hanji, made from materials obtained from nature, is a medium that perfectly satisfies eco-friendliness and sustainability, which are the current challenges facing the global design community, while inheriting Korean tradition. On the occasion of the 'Traditional knowledge, skills and practices of Hanji making' ahead of the final decision on its inscription to the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity this coming December, the exhibition introduces the cultural value and formative charm of Hanji, and how it expands into modern creations.
 

An official from Shinsegae stated, "Shinsegae Department Store Main Store The Heritage is a historical place that preserves the values of 90 years ago intact," and added, "We hope this exhibition, which presents beauty that clothes the time of tradition with modern sensibility, will be a place to discover new possibilities for traditional crafts."

Kim Gyeong-bae, president of the Korea Craft & Design Foundation, said, "This exhibition is a stage to experiment with the possibility of tradition meeting consumers to create new market touchpoints. It is a place to present products discovered and nurtured through startups through the market and show their expansion into today's tastes and lifestyles," and added, "We hope that the tradition encountered in daily life leads to today's new tastes, and we will strive so that 'K-Lifestyle Platform' can play a central role in that."

Read the original (Korean)