DDP (Dongdaemun Design Plaza) has established itself as Seoul's representative exhibition event facility by introducing recent exhibition events similar to artificial intelligence (AI)-based media art and digital art.

Seoul Design Foundation (CEO Kyung-don Lee) announced on the twelfth that it has been operating DDP for all the 12 months of 2023 and has recorded the best number of tourists, highest operation rate, and operating profit since its opening.

In 2023, DDP's total revenue was KRW 16.6 billion, the operation rate was 74%, and the financial independence was 105%. He said that he was in a position to attract a big number of tourists, especially after the coronavirus pandemic. That is akin to COEX (75%), which has the best operating rate amongst domestic rental facilities.

Last 12 months's income was 64% from rental (KRW 10.7 billion), followed by rental (KRW 3.7 billion), parking (KRW 1.7 billion), and other (KRW 500 million). It was said that the increased income was reinvested in DDP's own content similar to 'Seoulite', attracting additional visitors.

Seoul Light, previously held every winter, was held twice in the autumn and winter for the primary time, reaching 13.75 million visitors, the best number since its opening.

Above all, it was explained that it had visualized a 'future exhibition' by presenting its own free content fused with cutting-edge technology, similar to recent types of media art and digital art exhibitions using artificial intelligence (AI).

Particularly, through the Seoul Light fall period in September last 12 months, 60,000 people visited DDP a day to see the Aurora Media Art (Borealis) covering the grassy hill.

Global artist Miguel Chevalier's 'Meta-Nature AI' created a picture of nature that doesn’t exist on this world based on generative AI and displayed it on the front of the DDP exterior wall. The 4 seasons of the virtual garden were expressed based on a database of assorted trees, leaves, and flowers, and were viewed by a complete of 530,000 people over about 10 days.

'DDP 45133', which runs for 11 months from December twenty first to November thirtieth of this 12 months, also had 4,115 visitors in the primary 10 days. On the opening day, 501 people visited. By combining 12 architectural landmarks and DDP buildings designed by world-renowned architect Zaha Hadid with AI, 33 recent NFT artworks were developed.

Lee Kyung-don, CEO of the Seoul Design Foundation, said, “DDP is the ability that almost all representatively displays Seoul’s charms,” adding, “We are going to use 2023, which achieved one of the best performance, as a stepping stone to extend financial independence, while constantly attracting world-class exhibition events by presenting high-quality content to residents.” “It’s,” he said.

Meanwhile, DDP (Dongdaemun Design Plaza) celebrates its tenth anniversary in March. It was also revealed that this 12 months's rental reservation rate is anticipated to proceed at a high rate, exceeding 70%.

Reporter Jang Se-min semim99@aitimes.com