Border Subversion

Since the Berlin Wall, countless “walls of shame” have served as a medium for artists to express messages of rebellion and peace. After the Berlin Wall, whose western side was adorned with countless graffiti, the US-Mexican border, the walls separating Israelis from Palestinians, and those separating Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods in Northern Ireland have been taken over by street art, sometimes by famous artists such as Banksy and JR.

Border art is omnipresent in South Korea, along the demarcation line with the North. Unlike what happens on the US-Mexican or Israeli-Palestinian borders, here it is not a question of challenging the wall: everyone is aware that it is there to prevent invasion or infiltration by a rogue state. And most of the time, border art is not something truly spontaneous, as it was in Berlin during the time of the Wall or in Mexico today, but is organized or sponsored by public authorities.

From “peace ribbons” that anyone can hang on the barbed wire fences to fancifully decorated anti-tank obstacles, to the creation of magnificent flower gardens right on the edge of the Civilian Control Zone to the conversion of weapons of war into surreal art installations, everything here expresses the desire to mask the scar that has torn Korea apart for three quarters of a century, the pain of separation and the hope, which grows fainter with each passing day, for reunification.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, more organized artistic initiatives centered on the border have emerged. Camp Greaves, a former U.S. base in the Civilian Control Zone, has been converted into an art exhibition space. Far less well-known and hard to find, the Pyeonghwa Museum S827 opened in 2026 on the site of another former frontline garrison, Camp Howze in the border city of Paju, hosting rotating exhibitions of contemporary art, light, and history.

In addition to these institutions, there are independent artistic initiatives. Launched in 2011, the Real DMZ contemporary art project explores the visible and invisible boundaries of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and the border region, and the ways in which it has affected South Korean lives and thinking in the past and present. It has since broadened its scope to include examinations of the different forms of boundaries present within South Korean society.

One of the best-known cultural events connected to the border is the DMZ Peace Train Music Festival, launched in 2018 in response to the atmosphere of détente that followed the inter-Korean summits of that year. The festival, which takes place every year in early summer in Cheorwon, has often used locations associated with the Korean Division, such as the Workers’ Party Headquarters. The first edition featured three days of music by Korean and international, including founding member of the Velvet Underground John Cale, Sex Pistols founding bassist Glen Matlock and Danish rock band Iceage. North Korea was reportedly informed beforehand about the festival so the noise would not be misinterpreted as an act of agression.

In addition to the artistic subversion of the DMZ area, there is also a sporting dimension: every year, numerous competitions are held along the border, from the DMZ Hwacheon Cycling Rally in the mountainous area of Peace Dam to the DMZ Open Peace Marathon in Paju, which crosses the Unification Bridge into the Civilian Control Zone, and to the Cheorwon DMZ International Peace Marathon, which passes through former battlefields of the Korean War and military-controlled rural roads.

In a league of its own, the DMZ Peace Trail network, inaugurated in 2019, comprises 12 sections of hiking trails running along the border from the east coast to the west coast. Many sections located in the Civilian Control Zone are open only to groups accompanied by military escorts, while others, for obscure reasons, are forbidden to foreigners.