SEOUL –
More than 100 French artists, researchers, and art professionals have signed an open letter calling for a boycott of the Centre Pompidou Hanwha in Seoul, which is scheduled to inaugurate on June 4.
The dispute centers on the governance of cultural partnerships and the ethical constraints of museum expansion when funded by multinational conglomerates with defense industry interests. At issue is how a French national cultural institution, governed by the public-law framework that created the Centre Pompidou in 1975, should conduct international partnerships when private funding is closely tied to the arms trade.
The institution is a joint initiative between the Centre Pompidou and the Hanwha Foundation of Culture, the philanthropic arm of Hanwha Group, South Korea’s fifth-largest conglomerate. The Centre Pompidou itself is a French national public cultural establishment, created by law in 1975 and overseen by the Ministry of Culture, with a mandate to promote modern and contemporary art while maintaining financial autonomy through ticketing, partnerships, and sponsorships.
The project has faced criticism since its 2023 announcement, following a 2021 partnership between Hanwha Group and Israeli defense contractors Elbit Systems and Elta Systems to manufacture and export arms supplies to the Israel Defense Forces. The open letter argues that this corporate profile is incompatible with a cultural institution that carries the imprimatur of the French state, and urges French public authorities to reassess the conditions under which national museums enter long-term foreign sponsorship agreements.
The petition demands an end to the collaboration, stating that Hanwha’s business is “linked to the Palestinian genocide” and denouncing the project as “art-washing.” The letter situates the boycott call within broader debates around the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and the responsibility of public cultural bodies not to legitimize commercial actors involved in weapons production or export.
The signatories further critique current institutional trends, stating: “[W]e more broadly condemn the commodification of culture and the international expansion of museums through alliances with multinational corporations.” They frame the Seoul project as part of a wider race among major Western museums to establish branded satellites in Asia and the Gulf, often through public-private partnerships whose governance and ethical safeguards are opaque to the public.
Among the signatories are 2021 Marcel Duchamp Prize winner Lili Reynaud-Dewar and Algerian-Palestinian Jewish scholar Ariella Aïsha Azoulay. Their involvement lends weight from both the contemporary art establishment and critical scholarship on archives, imperialism, and visual culture.
Also signing the letter is French Lebanese artist-filmmaker Ali Cherri, who lodged a civil complaint in early April regarding a 2024 Israeli airstrike on Beirut that killed seven civilians, including his parents. His participation underscores how the petition connects institutional cultural policy to the direct human impact of current military operations.
Global Protests and Institutional Pressure
Opposition to the partnership has manifested in several international locations and through various media channels, underscoring how decisions around museum branding and sponsorship now reverberate across global cultural networks. On May 19, activists gathered outside the Seoul building for pro-Palestine demonstrations, calling on both the Hanwha Foundation and the French authorities responsible for the Centre Pompidou to suspend the project.
A Chanel runway show was held at the Centre Pompidou Hanwha on May 26, which was followed by the publication of an op-ed in the French newspaper Libération. Critics seized on the luxury fashion event, staged days before the inauguration, as evidence that the new venue risks functioning as a prestige platform for corporate partners rather than as an independent public cultural space.
Protests have also extended to New York at Space ZeroOne, a venue sponsored by the Hanwha Foundation. Demonstrators there echoed the Seoul petition’s demands and urged U.S.-based institutions to apply their own ethical guidelines on defense-industry funding to partnerships involving Hanwha.
In February, the artist-led collective Korean Cultural Alliance for Palestine called on Korean American artist Michael Joo to cancel his exhibition, “Sweat Models 1991-2026.” The exhibition opened as scheduled, highlighting the limits of informal pressure when no formal regulatory mechanism requires artists or institutions to vet sponsors against human-rights or arms-trade criteria.
Neither the Centre Pompidou nor the Hanwha Foundation of Culture has responded to the petition. The silence leaves key governance questions unanswered, including whether the partnership has been reviewed against the Centre Pompidou’s obligations as a French public establishment operating under the national cultural and heritage framework set out in the Code du patrimoine.
The inauguration of the Seoul institution is set for June 4.
