Science ministry opens hologram exhibit on women's independence activists

The science ministry said it will open a permanent hologram exhibition at Seodaemun Prison History Hall, using artificial intelligence to bring independence activist Yu Gwan-sun to life in the museum's women's prison building.

The permanent exhibition expands on a hologram service demonstration and experience hall established at the museum in 2024. Early this year, the Seodaemun-gu Urban Management Corporation and the National IT Industry Promotion Agency signed an agreement to extend that work into a permanent exhibition in the women's prison building, the ministry said.

Historic photographs of Yu and other women independence activists were restored with artificial intelligence and rendered as three-dimensional holograms. Visitors can view them without separate equipment and take part in a conversational exhibit that makes it appear the activists are standing before them.

The exhibition fills all eight rooms of the women's prison building, where Yu and numerous other women independence activists were imprisoned. Hologram installations trace their prison lives and records, including the hardship and adversity they endured. The first room covers the building's formation and historical significance, while the second focuses on women who took part in the 1919 March 1 Movement.

"This exhibition is a very meaningful example of re-examining the lives of women independence activists in history, based on the outstanding technology of domestic hologram companies," Nam Cheol-gi, the science ministry's software policy director, said. "We will continue to support virtual-convergence companies, including firms working with three-dimensional hologram technology, so they can continue to grow in a range of fields, including culture, society and industry," he added.

An opening ceremony will be held Aug. 14 before the exhibition becomes available to the general public on Liberation Day, Aug. 15, 2026, at Seodaemun Prison History Hall.