Pil-dong: The Arts & Culture District Near Myeongdong
If you travel like I do, then you’re constantly staring out bus or car windows until something catches your eye and then you quickly tag it on the map to come back to later. That’s how I found the Pil-dong Arts and Culture Street. Located just outside of the Namsangol Hanok Village and the beautiful Korea House in Jung-gu up the road from the popular Myeongdong shopping district in Seoul, Pil-dong is a hidden gem of colorful facades and artistic installations in backstreets where you’d never expect to find them.
I love that Seoul has so many of these arts and culture areas. Some of them are much more popular like the Ihwa Mural Village or maybe Mullae-dong’s street art, and others lesser so, like the Hongje Ant Mural Village, but there are so many fun artistic filled districts to seek out in Seoul.
Get ready to visit Pil-dong:
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How To Get There
Address: 24-11, Pildong 1-ga, Jung-gu, Seoul (서울시 중구 필동1가 24-11)
Directions: Go straight from Exit 4 of Chungmuro Station on Subway Lines 3 and 4 and turn left into the alley in front of “Street Museum: Container”.
What To Know About Pil-dong
Pil-dong is a regenerated area near Chungmuro Station in the Jung-gu district where once abandoned print shops and urban spaces were transformed in 2016 and are now called Yesultong. The print shops lost their luster in the 1990’s with the rise of the internet and digital media. Luckily, Hands BTL ad agency came in with an urban regeneration project.
It’s not a long walk or a large district to meander through, just a perfect addition to a stop at the Hanok village nearby. Or maybe the perfect way to burn off lunch at one of the restaurants in the area.
What To See in Yesultong
There are unique sculptures and “mini-museums” where you can look into windows to find artistic works. The museums are meant to showcase various contemporary arts including paintings, sculptures, photography, and other installations. When we visited in the chillier months, there wasn’t anything inside of the mini-museums unfortunately. Either we visited between exhibitions, or they hadn’t put anything in in awhile since the area has been so quiet and devoid of people during the pandemic.
The district is actually a non-profit open-air museum so I’m hoping this area will get some more revitalization in the coming months as things warm up and people return to the fun in the sun.
This is a fun outdoor museum of colorful buildings and little artistic installations and exhibitions to find. If you have children, it makes for a fun place to take a walk as you try to see and point out the little birds painted on a wall here, or the hidden statues over there. There are cartoon characters and illustrations that are fun to find. Keep your eyes peeled and you’ll spot them everywhere.
The outdoor museum was created under 8 themes including corner, well, connect, alley, nest, space, container, and wall. Maybe while you’re walking, try to see what word suits each artistic piece you can find. If you want to know what represents what though, you can also go to their website and see more details: http://www.streetmuseum.co.kr/
One of the pieces you can’t, or maybe won’t, miss is the giant self-portrait of artist Kang Hyung Koo. It’s a giant red piece that the information near by says was painted in this space in person so people could watch as the artist did it. This one really jumps out at you while you’re walking along the alleys I must say. It’s so vibrant as you turn the corner.
There’s also a stamp tour to do in the area if you remember to pick up the brochure at a tourist stop nearby the Hanok village where the entrance to Yesultong begins. There wasn’t much open when we went in the winter because it was a holiday and we just wanted a place to walk around, but it’s worth an ask to see if they have them for the stamp spots which we found while we were walking.
The area is a fun little spot to visit if you’re downtown and want to check out something that’s a bit of a hidden gem near Myeongdong and the Hanok village. Take a walk and see what you see!
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