Hanwha Group has brought and opened the world’s third Pompidou Center in Seoul. Hanwha Culture Foundation said on May 19 it held an opening ceremony for Pompidou Center Hanwha at the annex of the 63 Building in Yeouido-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul.

Pompidou Center Hanwha is the third Pompidou art museum, following Malaga in Spain and Shanghai West Bund in China. It operates as a complex cultural and arts space from basement level 1 to the third floor above ground, with 2 large exhibition halls.

Attendees included Han Dong-won (김동원), chief global officer at Hanwha Life Insurance, and executives from Hanwha Group affiliates, as well as Philippe Bertoux, France’s ambassador to South Korea, and Laurent Le Bon, head of the Pompidou Center. Major cultural and arts figures from South Korea and abroad also attended, including Yoo Hong-joon, head of the National Museum of Korea, Kim Sung-hee, head of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, and Lee Beom-heon, head of the Arts Council Korea. During the opening ceremony, key guests and Hanwha executives went on stage and held a lighting event for an illuminated object shaped like a building model.

The opening exhibition displays major Cubist works, including Pablo Picasso’s "Mercure" ballet stage curtain and Marie Laurencin’s "Apollinaire and His Friends." Han said he viewed the works with figures from the art world and artists taking part in the "Youngmin overseas residency support" programme, encouraging emerging artists. Pompidou Center Hanwha was created through a partnership between Hanwha Culture Foundation and the Pompidou Center in Paris, and was built by remodelling the existing annex of the 63 Building.

Kim Sung-hee, head of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, said, "Pompidou Center Hanwha is more meaningful because it is opening to mark the 140th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Korea and France." She said, "I expect it will serve as an excellent bridge for cultural and artistic exchange and shared growth between the two countries."

Kim Seung-youn (김승연), chairman of Hanwha Group, stressed in a commemorative speech read on his behalf by Han, "Hanwha views culture and the arts not simply as an 'object of support' but as 'a core of future value.'" He added, "The belief that someone must draw an unseen future and protect that possibility to the end has ultimately become reality and appeared here today."

Pompidou Center Hanwha will officially open to the public at 10 a.m. on June 4.