Japanese architect Tadao Ando has created a cave-like, concrete gallery for British sculptor Antony Gormley‘s permanent installation at Museum SAN in Wonju, South Korea.

Conceived by Ando and Gormley as “both a work of art and an experiential site”, the gallery comprises a 25-metre-wide subterranean dome crowned with a central oculus, and is complete with the artist’s cast-iron sculptures.

Ando and Gormley have created the Ground gallery at Museum SAN

The exhibition space, named Ground, sits alongside three additional gallery spaces at Museum SAN that are showcasing Gormley’s solo exhibition Drawing on Space.

“The idea of this exhibition is to allow physical and imaginative space to come together,” Gormley said. “The works will activate rather than occupy space, and explore the enclosures of architecture and the body as sensate.”

The gallery contains a permanent installation by Gormley

The concrete extension forms Pritzker Architecture Prize-winner Ando’s latest adaptation to the museum, which he completed in 2013 before adding the Space of Light meditation space in 2023. It was commissioned by the museum to challenge “conventional white-cube exhibition formats”.

“The new permanent space stands as a culmination of the museum’s ongoing commitment to creating experimental environments where sculpture, landscape, and architecture converge,” the museum said.

Situated beneath the museum’s flower garden, the subterranean volume is accessed via an underground observation room, where a glazed opening offers panoramic views into the adjacent Ground gallery.

Beyond this, the space opens up into the new central dome. Inside, the gallery offers an airy, stripped-back interior to spotlight Gormley’s permanent installation.

A series of abstract cast-iron figures populate the gallery space, and contrast with rough exposed concrete walls and glossy concrete floors.

Rounded openings are carved into the concrete dome

Complementing the volume’s central oculus is a large arched opening, which draws light into the space while also casting views out over the surrounding landscape.

This opening extends the exhibition space out to an external terrace, which is installed with one of the seven sculptures.

Cast-iron sculptures fill the space

On show at the museum until November, the Drawing on Space exhibition is the sculptor’s largest presentation in Korea to date – encompassing 48 works.

Also in South Korea, the Photography Seoul Museum of Art was recently completed with a twisted form of stacked concrete panels and the Seoul Robot & AI Museum was designed with a spaceship-like organic form.

Elsewhere, it was announced that Ando’s concrete MPavilion would remain in Queen Victoria Gardens until 2030, beyond its originally planned five-month installation period.

The photography is courtesy of Museum SAN.

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