This post was created as part of Nexon PEAK activities.

Encountering The Wind of Thirty, Carrying on Tradition at Gyeongbokgung Palace

Baram Nara, which marks its 30th anniversary this year, has met traditional craft.
The Wind of Thirty, Carrying on Tradition, created jointly by the Nexon Foundation’s social contribution project Borderless and the Korea National University of Cultural Heritage,
is currently on view at Gyejodang Hall in Gyeongbokgung Palace.

I visited in person on September 9, the exhibition’s opening day.
I’m not someone who played Baram Nara for years and years,
but I do remember trying it briefly with friends a long time ago,
so this time I went to see how elements from the game
had been reinterpreted as actual works of traditional art.

Heading to Gyeongbokgung Palace

The exhibition is being held at Gyejodang Hall in Gyeongbokgung Palace.

There are several ways to get there, but I chose the subway.
If you get off at Gyeongbokgung Station on Subway Line 3 and take Exit 5,
you’ll be connected directly toward Gyeongbokgung Palace and the National Palace Museum of Korea.

The signage was clear from inside the station onward,
so even a first-time visitor should have no trouble finding the way.

Once I arrived at Gyeongbokgung, I first bought an admission ticket at the ticket office.

The exhibition itself is free, but because it takes place inside Gyeongbokgung Palace,
there is a 3,000 won Gyeongbokgung admission fee.
The ticket office used kiosks, and card payment was available as well.

The Way to Gyejodang Hall

After your ticket is checked and you enter Gyeongbokgung, you’ll come to a bridge called Yeongjegyo.
Cross Yeongjegyo and head right, and you’ll find a small gate leading toward Gyejodang Hall.
From there, you can already spot standing signs related to The Wind of Thirty, Carrying on Tradition.

There was also a QR code set up at the entrance along with exhibition information.
If you scan it in advance, you can use it while viewing the exhibition to check the

QR catalog and missions.

Once inside Gyejodang Hall, there was a Baram information desk on the right,
and a space on the left for checking missions and viewing goods information.

I picked up an exhibition pamphlet at the information desk first, then started looking around.

Baram Nara at Gyejodang Hall

This exhibition was organized to mark the 30th anniversary of Baram Nara
while also supporting the creative work of emerging artists through the Nexon Foundation’s Borderless project.

Borderless is a social contribution project by the Nexon Foundation
that offers game IP as creative inspiration for artists,
creating opportunities for new work and new ways for people to experience art.

This time, students with expertise in traditional culture fields,
including national heritage restoration techniques and craftsmanship as well as trainees in national intangible heritage,
created works using Baram Nara as their subject.

So the pieces on view are not straightforward recreations of game characters.
Instead, they are works that express Baram Nara in each artist’s own way
using the traditional techniques they have studied, including ceramics, roof tiles, lacquer, dancheong, traditional painting, and embroidery.

Before entering Gyejodang Hall, there was also a space where fabric resembling silk fluttered in the wind.
A short introduction to Baram Nara was provided there as well,
and because the fabric looked so beautiful in motion, I also noticed tourists stopping to take photos.

The atmosphere of the exhibition felt naturally in sync with the setting of Gyeongbokgung.

Works on View at Gyejodang Hall

Source: exhibition web catalog

Inside Gyejodang Hall, there were four collaboration works to view in sequence.
Collar Holding the Wind, Rogue, Riding the Wind, Yongjeonseolmansangdo, and A Pouch Carrying the Wishes of a Squirrel and a Rabbit
were displayed inside Gyejodang Hall in order, while Guardian Divine Beasts Jingyesang was installed in the outdoor area outside the hall.

For the indoor exhibition, visitors had to remove their shoes before entering,
and indoor slippers were provided at the entrance.

When I visited, some of the artists who made the works, along with people who seemed to know them, were also at the venue.
They were standing in front of the pieces, chatting and explaining the work,
and it felt a little special just knowing the artists themselves were there.

Of course, I didn’t actually join the conversation myself,
but while quietly looking at the other works, I could tell those conversations were happening nearby ㅎ...

The Most Memorable Work for Me, <Rogue, Riding the Wind>

The piece that left the strongest impression on me in this exhibition was <Rogue, Riding the Wind>.
Baram Nara is a game built on 2D graphics,
so I found it especially interesting that the squirrel from the game had been realized as a three-dimensional work.

In particular, it was my first time seeing a lacquer work up close.
From photos, I had assumed it would feel something like a wooden sculpture,
but in person, the rogue squirrel’s color wasn’t simply wood-toned at all.
It had a soft, layered quality, as if several colors were overlapping,
and it was the first time I really felt the appeal of the color that lacquer can produce.

Mother-of-pearl was used in the stripes on the squirrel’s tail and in the decorations on the corrupt-official squirrels.
Even tiny details that only became visible up close had been handled with care,
so it was fun to spot those little touches one by one.

The work also included thread ornaments,
and it was striking to see them gently swaying in the breeze coming through the windows of Gyejodang Hall.
As the decorations moved with the wind, it created a fairy-tale-like atmosphere, as if real wind had entered the piece itself.

The Artists Behind the Works

Source: Baram Nara YouTube

<Rogue, Riding the Wind> involved Yang Hoseong, Choi Hyoryeong, and Han Hyein.

Yang Hoseong is a national heritage restoration craftsperson in lacquerwork who mainly works in dry lacquer sculpture.

Choi Hyoryeong holds qualifications as a national heritage restoration craftsperson in lacquerwork, gilding, and conservation treatment
and works with a range of different materials.
In particular, the artist presents works using metal and cloisonné.

Han Hyein continues to create sculptural and character-based works grounded in lacquer.
The artist’s practice of applying traditional lacquer techniques to contemporary forms and characters
also suits this work especially well.

Trying the QR Mission Myself

Source: screenshot from the exhibition web catalog

There was also a QR web catalog mission to enjoy alongside the exhibition.
Visitors take on the role of an adventurer squirrel and follow the stories of five craft works and their makers.

It involves solving simple quizzes related to the five exhibited works,
with both multiple-choice and short-answer questions included.

The questions were fairly easy.
Even if you got something wrong, you could try again, so it was easy to go through without any pressure.
For example, some questions asked you to count the number of tiles featuring the Four Guardian Deities,
while others asked about the deities, their symbolic colors, and the names of techniques used in the works.
Rather than letting you simply pass by the exhibits,
the mission encourages you to look closely at each piece, which made it a good companion to the exhibition itself.

Source: exhibition web catalog

If you complete all of the missions, you can receive a gift at the rewards booth.
The rewards include a commemorative exhibition ticket, a game coupon, and a one-year free Ideas membership pass,
and the game coupon in particular stood out to me.

Using the coupon lets you receive the Squirrel Ear Pouch mount.
The traditional embroidery work <A Pouch Carrying the Wishes of a Squirrel and a Rabbit> from this exhibition
has been recreated in-game as a mount.

Taking a Photo at the Hall of Wind Costumes

In front of Gyejodang Hall, there was also a photo zone called “Baram Costume Room”.

It brought together Baram Nara’s pixel graphics and the traditional architecture of Gyeongbokgung,
making it a nice spot for an exhibition photo.

On site, after taking a photo at the photo zone,
#이립의바람전통을잇다 #보더리스전시 #바람의나라전시
you could choose one of those hashtags and upload it to your Instagram feed or story
to take part in the event.

I was... too shy to take my own commemorative photo,
so I just took plenty of photos of the photo zone itself ㅎ...

Looking Around the Exhibition Goods

The exhibition goods were set up immediately to the left of the rewards booth.

But the day I visited was also the exhibition’s opening day,
and there was a media filming team there, so I felt awkward hovering around in front of the cameras.
In the end, I didn’t really get to browse properly or take photos 😥

Source: Ideas

Still, a few items caught my eye,
and products featuring squirrels and mother-of-pearl in particular,
like the squirrel mother-of-pearl cup and the squirrel mother-of-pearl keyring, looked especially nice.

Source: Ideas

There was also a wide range of other items, from things people use a lot these days, like clicker keyrings and keycaps,
to practical products such as bags, AirPods cases, wine bags, and scrubbers,
which made the display fun to browse.

The goods cannot be purchased on site and must be purchased through Ideas.

Since the actual products are on display at the venue,
you can take a look in person there first and then buy anything you like through Ideas.

It was also explained that part of the proceeds from goods sales will be used to support the continued creative activities of the artists participating in Borderless.
I liked that it meant more than simply buying exhibition souvenirs, and also served as a way to support traditional art and the work of emerging artists.

Why It Felt Better to Visit in Person

Before visiting this exhibition, I did have a few concerns.

I had only played Baram Nara briefly with friends when I was very young.
My memory of it was basically just spending a short time with it back in the days when you had to pay once your level increased,
so I wondered whether I might have trouble fully understanding the material used in the exhibition.

But once I got there, more of it felt familiar than I expected.

One obvious example was the squirrel.
In Baram Nara, the squirrel is such an iconic monster, and one you encounter from early on,
so even for someone like me who didn’t play for very long, it had stayed in my memory.

The Four Guardian Deities felt the same way.
Azure Dragon, Vermilion Bird, Black Tortoise, and White Tiger are elements you come across from the moment you create a character,
so they still felt familiar even though I hadn’t played the game for long.

Because of that, I came away feeling that even someone who doesn’t know the game especially well
probably wouldn’t find the themes in this exhibition difficult to approach.

More than anything, I liked being able to see the works right in front of me.

Photos I had seen beforehand gave me a sense of each piece as a whole,
but in person, details that don’t come through easily in images started to stand out,
like the patterns carved into the roof tiles and the small details in the ceramic works,
the brushwork and texture of the pigments in the paintings, and lacquer’s subtle but richly layered color.

It reminded me again that works like these are simply more rewarding to see in person.

Good Things to Know Before Visiting

I visited at around 3:30 p.m. on September 9, the day the exhibition opened.

By the time I had viewed the works and completed the QR mission, about 15 minutes had passed.
Of course, you would need more time if you wanted to linger over each piece or explore other parts of Gyeongbokgung as well,
but the exhibition itself was on a fairly manageable scale.

And since the venue is inside Gyeongbokgung Palace,
I’d recommend planning it together with a visit to Gyeongbokgung.

By mid-September, the heat has eased compared with high summer, so it also feels like a gradually better time for outdoor activities.
If you walk around Gyeongbokgung, stop by Gyejodang Hall to see the exhibition, and take part in the QR mission as well,
you can also pick up exhibition souvenirs and a game coupon, so it makes for a nice combined visit.

One practical thing to know in advance is that while the exhibition itself is free, you still need to pay the 3,000 won admission fee for Gyeongbokgung.

Exhibition Information

Source: Nexon Borderless

The Wind of Thirty, Carrying on Tradition

• Period: Wednesday, September 9, 2026 ~ Monday, September 21

• Location: Gyejodang Hall, Gyeongbokgung Palace

• Viewing hours: 9:30 a.m. ~ 5:30 p.m.

• Last admission to Gyeongbokgung: 5:00 p.m.

• Closed on Tuesdays

• Exhibition admission: Free

• Gyeongbokgung admission fee: 3,000 won

• Ages 24 and under: Free entry to Gyeongbokgung

Detailed information about the exhibition can be found in the official notice.

https://borderless.nexonfoundation.org/news/proceeding/3532778

Closing Thoughts

This was an exhibition that let me encounter the game Baram Nara through the fresh lens of traditional craft.
What stayed with me most was seeing the works up close and noticing details that are hard to fully appreciate in photos,
such as the texture of lacquer and the finer points of the ceramics and roof tiles.

More than anything, experiencing the world of Baram Nara in the setting of Gyeongbokgung Palace
made the connection between the exhibition’s theme and its venue feel especially natural.

It is both an exhibition marking the 30th anniversary of Baram Nara and one that offers a new way to encounter traditional craft
It will remain at Gyejodang Hall in Gyeongbokgung Palace through September 21, so if you are planning a visit to Gyeongbokgung, it’s well worth stopping by.