Hermitage Goes Digital in Seoul With Its First Major Immersive Export
From April 30 to July 31, 2026, Seoul will host Hermitage Light, a large-scale digital exhibition and the State Hermitage Museum’s first major international immersive project.
The exhibition will take place at Mapo Oil Depot in the Sangam district, a former oil storage facility transformed into a contemporary cultural space. The project is being developed in partnership with the Korean company Artworks and signals a shift toward exporting Russian cultural content in digital form.
From St. Petersburg to Seoul
Visitors are offered a fully immersive experience. Through projection systems and spatial audio, the exhibition recreates the atmosphere of the Winter Palace, the historic core of the Hermitage. Audiences can walk through the grand halls of the imperial residence without leaving the South Korean capital.
The exhibition features around 50 major works from the museum’s collection, including pieces by Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt, Renoir, Monet and Matisse. The artworks are displayed at full scale with high-fidelity detail in texture and color, creating a sense of presence within the artistic environment.
Museum diplomacy is evolving toward the transmission of experience through digital formats. In practice, this makes masterpieces accessible to international audiences who may not be able to travel to Russia.
A Cultural Bridge Between Russia and Asia
The project was initiated by Artworks, a company specializing in immersive cultural productions across Asia. Organizers see Seoul as a natural hub for expanding similar projects across Asia.
Mikhail Piotrovsky, Director General of the State Hermitage Museum, plans to visit Seoul during the exhibition, adding weight to the event in both academic and cultural circles.
The choice of venue is also symbolic. The industrial legacy of a former oil depot contrasts with the opulence of Russian Baroque and imperial art. This contrast amplifies the experience and highlights the transformation of industrial sites into cultural spaces.
Digitization as a New Export Strategy
Hermitage Light is part of a broader strategy by the museum to expand digital formats. In 2026, the General Staff Building in St. Petersburg launched the Museum Detective exhibition, an immersive investigation where visitors explore collections through interactive scenarios. The Russian Ministry of Culture has supported similar initiatives, with more than 430 multimedia guides created and thousands of exhibits digitized under the national Culture project.
Global developments reinforce this direction. The Louvre launched its immersive Mona Lisa exhibition in 2022 and is developing augmented reality projects with Snapchat in 2026. Japan’s teamLab has operated a permanent digital museum in Tokyo since 2024. Within this landscape, Russia is positioning itself with a more integrated approach to digital cultural experiences.
The Future of Museum Exports
The project’s success could become a starting point for new international collaborations. In practice, that would open the door to a wider rollout of similar formats. If the exhibition draws strong attendance and public interest, similar formats may expand to other Asian countries and the Middle East.
For Russia’s IT sector and creative industries, this opens access to the global museum tech and digital heritage market. The Hermitage demonstrates that cultural influence can now be exported through digital experiences. These technologies make centuries-old art more accessible, engaging and understandable for a new generation of global audiences.
