The Kingdom of the Winds 30th Anniversary Exhibition: Game Characters Reborn as Traditional Craft Works

The exhibition "Borderless Craft Edition: The Wind at Thirty, Connecting Tradition," which reinterprets the world of the game 'The Kingdom of the Winds' through traditional crafts, is being held at Gyejodang Hall in Gyeongbokgung Palace through a collaboration between Nexon Foundation's Borderless and emerging artists from Korea National University of Heritage. This exhibition demonstrates an attempt to break the boundaries between tradition and modernity by realizing game characters and images as works of art.

Five Traditional Artworks Containing the Game's Worldview

The exhibition consists of five major works utilizing the IP (Intellectual Property) of the game 'The Kingdom of the Winds.' Each work is implemented through different traditional techniques such as ceramics, traditional painting, dancheong, lacquerware/mother-of-pearl, and embroidery.

The first work, 'Suho-sin-su-jin-gye-sang (Artists Lee Sol-chan and Kim Jeong-woo),' is a ceramic work inspired by the guardian deity characters that users select at the start of the game. It combines roof tiles in the shape of the Four Guardian Deities with ceramic materials, adding historical authenticity by reflecting the characteristics of the Four Guardian Deities paintings from the Goguryeo and Goryeo periods, such as processing the dragon's finish to be sharp. Based on their memories of selecting game characters, the artists completed the work by combining roof tiles and ceramics, focusing on the shapes of buildings and animals.

The second work, 'Collar Containing the Wind (Artist Kim Hee-sun),' is a series that reinterprets the animal characters of the Four Guardian system through traditional painting. The Blue Dragon was portrayed as an elegant woman, the White Tiger as a lively male student, the Vermilion Bird as a cute fairy, and the Black Tortoise as a heavy-set idol character. In particular, to overcome the limitations of traditional coloring pigments, they created a glowing effect by drawing white lines over the pigments, and added a modern sense by placing a hologram-like 'The Kingdom of the Winds' logo on the front of the works.

The third work, 'Yongjeon-seol-man-sang-do (Artists Ahn Yu-jin and Lee Dong-min),' is a work that captures the dragon, a boss monster in the game, using traditional painting techniques. This is the result of an artist who usually draws benevolent animals challenging themselves to express the charm of the boss monster, which is a 'villain' in the game, and it was produced using traditional pigments made by grinding actual mineral stones.

The fourth work, 'Thief, Riding the Wind (Artists Yang Ho-seong, Choi Hyo-ryeong, and Han Hye-in),' is a lacquerware and mother-of-pearl work featuring the squirrel, a symbolic character of the game, as the protagonist. Using a composition reminiscent of 'The Story of Hong Gildong,' they depicted the image of a squirrel thief punishing corrupt officials. The government office gate, which serves as the main entrance, was directly carved and produced by the artists, and modern lacquer techniques were applied, such as the technique of crushing and scattering mother-of-pearl and powder work of applying gold powder over lacquer. Additionally, experiments were conducted to combine traditional techniques with modern technologies such as 3D printing.

The final work, 'Lucky Pouch Infused with the Wishes of the Squirrel and Rabbit (Artist Ahn Eun-jeong),' is a work utilizing embroidery techniques. It expresses the heart of celebrating the 30th anniversary of 'The Kingdom of the Winds' by including auspicious meanings such as grapevines (wealth and prosperity of descendants), rabbits and the moon (longevity), and pine trees (longevity). After a production period of about two months, the patterns, shapes, and even the stitching were meticulously worked on, and detail was added by embroidering the game logo with gold thread on the back of the pouch.

Exhibition Information and Experiential Elements

This exhibition will be held at Gyejodang Hall in Gyeongbokgung Palace from Wednesday, September 9, 2026, to Monday, September 21, 2026. Viewing hours are from 9:30 AM to 5:30 PM, and entry to Gyeongbokgung Palace closes at 5:00 PM.

The exhibition hall includes experiential elements beyond simple viewing. Through a QR code on the leaflet, visitors can enjoy a web catalog and the game, and by clearing missions, they can receive exhibition commemorative tickets and in-game item coupons. Additionally, if visitors use the photo zone composition centered around the government office gate, they can take photos with the artworks. An event is also underway on the Nexon Foundation Instagram to give away exhibition goods by choosing one of the five Borderless works that appeared in the video.

Connecting Tradition and Modernity, the Meaning of the Borderless Project

This exhibition, introduced by docent Jung Woo-chul, is part of the 'Borderless' project promoted by the Nexon Foundation. This project aims to combine modern content like games with Korea's traditional culture to record fading traditional techniques and find new artistic possibilities. Emerging artists are experimenting with the infinite scalability of tradition by combining modern technologies such as 3D printing with traditional techniques. This serves as a way to connect the past and the present and holds significant business meaning in protecting and recording our cultural heritage.