The special exhibition "Yuksa Field Trip" at Munhwa Gonggan Yi Yuksa runs through Nov. 14, inviting visitors to become field researchers and trace the poet's life and activities in China through an immersive, participatory experience.
Munhwa Gonggan Yi Yuksa, a cultural space in Seoul's Seongbuk-gu (District Mayor Lee Seung-ro), will run its special exhibition "Yuksa Field Trip" through Nov. 14.
The participatory exhibition explores the life of poet Yi Yuksa and the traces of his activities in China through the lens of a "field trip," inviting visitors to become researchers themselves as they follow his life and era firsthand.
The exhibition goes beyond a simple chronological account of Yi Yuksa's life. Visitors first discover their own field-trip type, then move along a designated path to explore key locations, and finally leave behind their own personal field-trip record. Through this journey, they encounter Yi Yuksa not merely as an independence activist or a poet from a textbook, but as a person who was constantly on the move and making choices within his time.
The exhibition is organized into four zones: the start of the field trip, the road of the field trip, "A Day in the Life of Poet Yuksa," and the conclusion of the field trip. Beginning at Cheongnyangni Station, visitors trace Yi Yuksa's routes and activities across cities in China and Japan. A dedicated corner titled "A Day in the Life of Poet Yuksa" reconstructs a single day in 1941 Gyeongseong, bringing the spaces and daily rhythms of that era to life through maps and explanatory materials.
In the exhibition's final space, a participatory program invites visitors to leave their own field-trip record, completing a guide for those who come after them.
A visitor participation program has also been prepared. Through a personality quiz — "What kind of field researcher am I?" — visitors can identify their exploration style from four types: the explorer of relationships, the tracker of resistance, the interpreter of poetry, and the collector of memories. The result then guides them toward a deeper, more personalized experience of the exhibition.
Munhwa Gonggan Yi Yuksa will also roll out a series of exhibition-linked programs starting in June. These include a special lecture by Kim Tae-bin, a teacher at Hansung Girls' High School who has consistently led Yi Yuksa field trips, and a Seoul field-trip program that visits the actual locations featured in "A Day in the Life of Poet Yuksa."
An education program for youth is also planned, ensuring that visitors of all ages can connect more closely with Yi Yuksa through the exhibition and its accompanying programs.
"We wanted to present the field trip not as a simple visit to a place, but as a process of following one person's life and era," Seongbuk-gu District Mayor Lee Seung-ro said. "We hope visitors will meet Yi Yuksa through their own eyes and create their own field-trip experience."
For more information about the exhibition and programs, contact Munhwa Gonggan Yi Yuksa directly.
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