We live surrounded by Hangeul every day. From the moment we wake up and check messages on our smartphones to reading street signs and sharing our feelings with others, Hangeul is always with us. Yet because it is as natural and familiar as breathing, we sometimes forget just how extraordinary it is.

Hangeul is a writing system that combines consonants and vowels based on the sounds of speech, enabling us to express an endless range of words and meanings. It embodies King Sejong the Great’s compassionate spirit of caring for his people—rooted in the belief that everyone should be able to learn easily and express their thoughts—as well as the remarkable innovation of creating an entirely new writing system unlike anything that had existed before.

This is precisely why Sejong City is now moving forward as a “City of Hangeul Culture.” Rather than preserving Hangeul as a relic of the past, the city seeks to expand it into a living, evolving culture that continuously takes shape through contemporary art, industry, and everyday life. At the heart of this transformation is the Sejong Hangeul Biennale.

Seeds Planted in the First Year, a New Leap Begins

The starting point of this transformation was the “seeds of Hangeul culture” planted throughout Sejong City last year. Led by the Hangeul Culture City Center, 20 projects spanning exhibitions, performances, and tourism ran without interruption. Citizens participated in creating a representative typeface for the City of Hangeul Culture, breathing the spirit of Hangeul into furniture, music, and everyday products. The Hangeul Store also evolved beyond a place where Hangeul-themed goods are simply purchased, becoming a cultural hub for experiencing Hangeul in new ways.

In 2025, those seeds began to sprout through the Hangeul International Pre-Biennale, Drawn Words, Woven Lives. Moving beyond the visual qualities of the writing system itself, artists from Korea and abroad explored the creativity and core values of Hangeul through contemporary art forms such as installations and virtual reality (VR). As citizen docents and children made their way through the exhibition spaces, they shared one realization: Hangeul is a living culture that can be seen, felt, and experienced emotionally. In Sejong City, Hangeul is expanding from a source of regional identity into an artistic language that communicates with the world.

How Do Square Letters Become Contemporary Art?

How, then, can the letters we use every day become works of art? In contemporary art, written characters are no longer limited to conveying simple information. The distinctive forms of letters, their repeated arrangements, and even the movement and sound contained within them become artworks in themselves. Many artists have already looked to writing as an artistic medium to house their thoughts and perceptions. This is precisely where the Sejong Hangeul Biennale trains its focus. Hangeul possesses the most ideal structure for crossing genres, allowing its consonants and vowels to be freely disassembled and recombined.

The Sejong Hangeul Biennale goes far beyond showcasing the visual beauty of Hangeul. It serves as a global platform to demonstrate the immense potential for artistic transformation that emerges when Hangeul’s original structure and founding philosophy meet modern technology and the defining questions of our time.

The entire city becomes an art gallery through the biennale

The word biennale means “every two years” in Italian. Since the first Venice Biennale was held in Italy in 1895, biennales have served as international gatherings where artists from around the world convene to raise questions about the pressing issues of their time, shift perspectives, and share ideas—functioning much like an intellectual conference for artists.

The Sejong Hangeul Biennale follows this very tradition. Rather than simply displaying a collection of works based on Hangeul, it is prepared to ask the world how Hangeul can fuse with contemporary spaces and lives to generate entirely new meanings.

Last year’s Pre-Biennale was anchored in the historic old downtown of Jochiwon, utilizing spaces like the Jochiwon 1927 Art Center and the Sanil Silk Reeling Factory area that still retain traces of time. The upcoming Sejong Hangeul Biennale is set to expand even further. From the Biennale Exhibition Hall and the Sejong Arts Center to the City Symbolic Plaza and the Ieung Bridge spanning the Geum River, the parks citizens walk through daily and the streets they commute along will become exhibition spaces. The very act of walking through the city will become a journey of appreciating art—the exact moment when Sejong City itself transforms into a grand stage for Hangeul.

The People Behind the Sejong Hangeul Biennale: New Perspectives, New Questions

A project that uses an entire city as its canvas cannot be completed through the vision of a single individual alone. It is only made possible when a multitude of insights from diverse fields—Hangeul, exhibitions, linguistics, and public administration—are intricately woven together. While the Sejong Hangeul Biennale Organizing Committee lays the foundational framework and advisory members contribute professional insights, the artistic director is the one who weaves all these ideas into a single, compelling narrative.

At last, the artistic director who will lead this year’s highly anticipated Sejong Hangeul Biennale has been appointed. The protagonist is Park Mi-hwa, who spent approximately 30 years at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea(MMCA), curating major landmark exhibitions. Through the artistic director's discerning lens, what forms will those numerous artworks, the city of Sejong, and Hangeul take? What questions will they pose to us in 2027? And what turning point awaits us?

For our readers, could you introduce yourself and your background?

Hello. My name is Park Mi-hwa, and I have been appointed as the artistic director for the inaugural Sejong Hangeul Biennale in 2027. After spending approximately 30 years at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA), taking on this new role with the Sejong Hangeul Biennale fills me with genuine excitement. In many ways, exhibitions and artworks have become deeply ingrained in my DNA. With that background, I hope to lay a strong, solid foundation as the Sejong Hangeul Biennale takes its very first steps.

During my time at the MMCA, I was involved in planning and managing numerous landmark exhibitions, including Lee Kun-hee Collection: Masterpieces of Korean Art, Samramansang: From KIM Whanki to YANG Fudong, Rhee Seundja, Contemporary Art from France, and Louise Bourgeois.

Working at a national institution, I always kept its public role and responsibilities at the forefront of my mind, focusing deeply on the core message each exhibition aimed to communicate. For instance, Lee Kun-hee Collection: Masterpieces of Korean Art was widely celebrated as a "donation of the century." Consequently, the exhibition highlighted the positive social impact of cultural philanthropy while aiming to share breathtaking masterworks with the general public. By contrast, French Art Today: Marcel Duchamp Prize focused primarily on conveying historical significance within the broader trajectory of art history.

What inspired you to take on the role of artistic director for the Sejong Hangeul Biennale?

I began my career as a curator at the MMCA in 1997 and retired in December 2025. Though it sounds like a long journey in public service, the years passed by in the blink of an eye. When I look back to see what remains from that time and what I accomplished, I realize that the museum has always been the center of my life. If there is something I know I can still do well, it is the kind of work I dedicated myself to at the museum. That realization naturally led me to apply for an exhibition-related role.

There was another compelling reason, too. Within the large, secure framework of a national institution like the MMCA, my focus was largely confined to contemporary art. I thought it would be a uniquely special experience to step outside that familiar perspective and view art through an entirely new lens: Hangeul. Hangeul and art—this is a wonderfully fresh challenge for me.

When you first explored Sejong in your capacity as artistic director, what struck you the most about the city?

Having worked as a public official myself, Sejong wasn't entirely unfamiliar territory to me, but my mental image of the city had long been tied strictly to the Government Complex Sejong.

However, as I explored the city while preparing for this role, what stood out to me most were the numerous urban regeneration spaces—both large and small—and the abundance of green areas scattered throughout Sejong. I already knew about the urban regeneration sites through prior research, but the greenery was something I organically discovered as I moved around, and it brought me a profound sense of emotional peace.

That experience strongly convinced me that Sejong deserves to be introduced to a much wider audience. If there was one slight regret, it was that the city as a whole displayed striking individual characteristics rather than a unified aesthetic. Achieving harmony while honoring individual uniqueness is never easy, but I hope the Sejong Hangeul Biennale can serve as a small, meaningful step toward creating that balance.

Could you share the core themes and vision you are preparing for the inaugural Sejong Hangeul Biennale?

This is perhaps the most critical question. While we will continue to deliberate and refine the concept before it is officially finalized, I am currently leaning toward an expanded, contemporary reinterpretation of the concept of heaven, earth, and humanity (cheonjiin).

The goal is to deeply understand Hangeul’s philosophical worldview, its brilliant originality, and its scientific principles, and to share those values with the world. Furthermore, because this is the very first Sejong Hangeul Biennale, I want to remain steadfastly faithful to the fundamentals. We plan to explore the historical evolution of Hangeul from its inception, trace the development of its letterforms and typefaces down to modern Hangeul typography, and even expand our scope to examine global writing systems—ultimately reflecting on the profound meaning of Hangeul within a broader international context.

Through these themes and directions, the Sejong Hangeul Biennale aims to ride the wave of the global K-culture phenomenon and contribute meaningfully to it.

How do you hope Sejong, as a City of Hangeul Culture, will be remembered by its citizens and visitors?

Putting aside my professional perspective for a moment, I hope Sejong is remembered as a wonderfully livable city where everything you need is harmoniously balanced. Since Sejong has already established a strong identity as an administrative hub, I hope that art and culture will weave their way into every corner of the urban landscape, leaving visitors and residents with a lingering sense of emotional comfort and stability.

What do you imagine the 2027 Sejong Hangeul Biennale in Sejong will ultimately look like?

I find myself imagining it quite often. Personally, I am someone who values practical substance and depth, so I want to ensure that anyone who visits the Sejong Biennale leaves feeling fully satisfied.

I often envision visitors arriving for the Biennale, wandering through various neighborhoods across Sejong, and naturally discovering and enjoying exhibitions nestled in small, unexpected corners of the city. My ultimate goal is to craft an exhibition of genuine substance, depth, and lasting resonance.

Thank you.