Jason Edwards – Interviews
I became interested in the exhibition that the Guimet Museum is devoting this year to the Kingdom of Silla because, in Europe, ancient Korea is rarely spoken about. We know modern Korea, its popular culture, and its trends, but almost never the civilizations that shaped the peninsula. Seeing a French national museum dedicate an entire exhibition to Silla, running until August 31, immediately made me want to know more.
To understand the approach behind this project, I conducted an online interview on July 30 with Arnaud Bertrand, curator of this exhibition organized as part of the 140th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Korea and France. Through this exchange, it becomes clear that the objective is not only to present beautiful objects, but to make accessible a civilization that played a major role in the history of East Asia. The exhibition brings together 160 works, including several National Treasures of Korea, and offers a narrative tracing the evolution of Silla, its unification of the peninsula, the rise of Buddhism, and the exchange networks that connected Eurasia.
This interview helps us understand how the Guimet Museum built this narrative, what curatorial choices were made, and why Silla deserves a place in the eyes of the European public today.
1. Motivation behind the Silla Exhibition
Jason Edwards: What motivated the creation of an exhibition dedicated to the Kingdom of Silla?
Arnaud Bertrand: It is a first in Europe. No national museum had dedicated a major exhibition to the ancient history of Korea until now. This fact alone justified the project. Yet Silla is one of the great civilizations of East Asia, and tracing its history allows for a better understanding of the foundations of contemporary Korea. While Korean popular culture fascinates people today, this fascination often remains limited to the present. Presenting the historical, artistic, and spiritual foundations of the peninsula fully aligns with the mission of the Guimet Museum: opening windows onto the civilizations of Asia.
Rather than a general history of the peninsula, we chose to focus on one of the founding kingdoms: Silla, alongside Goguryeo, Baekje, and Gaya. Its narrative is exceptional: a small territory that gradually succeeded in unifying almost the entire peninsula before becoming a major hub for Buddhism and international exchange.
My visit to Gyeongju in 2023 was decisive. Between the sea, mountains, valleys, royal tombs, and shrines, this sacred landscape carries immense symbolic power. I wanted to transport this universe to Paris to share this initiatory journey to the heart of the Silla clans, where founding myths, architectural heritage, and archaeological discoveries meet.
Arnaud Bertrand: It is a first in Europe. No national museum had dedicated a major exhibition to the ancient history of Korea until now. This fact alone justified the project. Yet Silla is one of the great civilizations of East Asia, and tracing its history allows for a better understanding of the foundations of contemporary Korea. While Korean popular culture fascinates people today, this fascination often remains limited to the present. Presenting the historical, artistic, and spiritual foundations of the peninsula fully aligns with the mission of the Guimet Museum: opening windows onto the civilizations of Asia.
Rather than a general history of the peninsula, we chose to focus on one of the founding kingdoms: Silla, alongside Goguryeo, Baekje, and Gaya. Its narrative is exceptional: a small territory that gradually succeeded in unifying almost the entire peninsula before becoming a major hub for Buddhism and international exchange.
My visit to Gyeongju in 2023 was decisive. Between the sea, mountains, valleys, royal tombs, and shrines, this sacred landscape carries immense symbolic power. I wanted to transport this universe to Paris to share this initiatory journey to the heart of the Silla clans, where founding myths, architectural heritage, and archaeological discoveries meet.
2. Selection of Works and Curatorial Approach
Jason Edwards: How did you select the works and objects presented?
Arnaud Bertrand: The exhibition is the result of a partnership with the Gyeongju National Museum. I worked with its curators, including Lim Jaywan, a Buddhism specialist, Yoon Seogyeong, a specialist in Saroguk, as well as with Garance Cachard, scientific advisor. We designed a scenario aiming for two objectives: the first being to familiarize a non-specialist public with the arts of Silla, and the second to present a narrative as linear as possible of the first millennium of the peninsula.
The chosen objects reflect this approach. Buddhism is not treated as a mere historical period, but as a spiritual upheaval that drove the kingdom's expansion. We selected works revealing a long history: from founding myths and the Jinhan period to the arts of a unified power. With 160 works, including many National Treasures, the exhibition offers a social, artistic, and spiritual reading of Silla across 700 square meters, prepared in just one year.
Each object tells a story: political structures, beliefs, trade exchanges, technical innovations, and funerary practices. Gold crowns engage in dialogue with weapons, everyday objects, Buddhist sculptures, and more modest yet essential discoveries.
Arnaud Bertrand: The exhibition is the result of a partnership with the Gyeongju National Museum. I worked with its curators, including Lim Jaywan, a Buddhism specialist, Yoon Seogyeong, a specialist in Saroguk, as well as with Garance Cachard, scientific advisor. We designed a scenario aiming for two objectives: the first being to familiarize a non-specialist public with the arts of Silla, and the second to present a narrative as linear as possible of the first millennium of the peninsula.
The chosen objects reflect this approach. Buddhism is not treated as a mere historical period, but as a spiritual upheaval that drove the kingdom's expansion. We selected works revealing a long history: from founding myths and the Jinhan period to the arts of a unified power. With 160 works, including many National Treasures, the exhibition offers a social, artistic, and spiritual reading of Silla across 700 square meters, prepared in just one year.
Each object tells a story: political structures, beliefs, trade exchanges, technical innovations, and funerary practices. Gold crowns engage in dialogue with weapons, everyday objects, Buddhist sculptures, and more modest yet essential discoveries.
3. Relevance for a European Audience
Jason Edwards: Why is the Silla Kingdom relevant to a European audience?
Arnaud Bertrand: The exhibition invites us to shift our perspective. It serves as a reminder that world history is not limited to the civilizations usually taught, and that Korea possesses an ancient heritage of remarkable richness.
Silla also shows that civilizations never develop in isolation. From antiquity, the Korean Peninsula participated in a vast exchange network connecting Japan, China, the Indo-Pacific, the steppes, Central Asia, India, Persia, and indirectly, the Mediterranean world. This history resonates with our current vision of globalization: identity is built through exchanges, not against them.
Arnaud Bertrand: The exhibition invites us to shift our perspective. It serves as a reminder that world history is not limited to the civilizations usually taught, and that Korea possesses an ancient heritage of remarkable richness.
Silla also shows that civilizations never develop in isolation. From antiquity, the Korean Peninsula participated in a vast exchange network connecting Japan, China, the Indo-Pacific, the steppes, Central Asia, India, Persia, and indirectly, the Mediterranean world. This history resonates with our current vision of globalization: identity is built through exchanges, not against them.
4. Symbolic Artworks of the Silla Spirit
Jason Edwards: Is there an essential artwork to understand the spirit of Silla?
Arnaud Bertrand: I prefer to speak of the "spirits of Silla." The kingdom, centered on the Gyeongju Valley, was a melting pot of artistic traditions: mastery of ironworking, stone carving, and complex exchange routes.
The famous comma-shaped jade beads (gogok) are emblematic: aesthetic, symbolic, and linked to exchanges with the Japanese archipelago. The Gyerim-ro dagger, a flagship piece of the exhibition, synthesizes international influences: possibly of Byzantine, Sassanian, or Hephthalite manufacture, found in a 6th-century tomb in Gyeongju. The gold crowns, linked to shamanic traditions and Central Asian steppes, evoke the World Tree, a cosmic symbol. They reflect the spiritual role of rulers as intermediaries between heaven and earth, and the extraordinary flow of Eurasian craftsmanship.
Arnaud Bertrand: I prefer to speak of the "spirits of Silla." The kingdom, centered on the Gyeongju Valley, was a melting pot of artistic traditions: mastery of ironworking, stone carving, and complex exchange routes.
The famous comma-shaped jade beads (gogok) are emblematic: aesthetic, symbolic, and linked to exchanges with the Japanese archipelago. The Gyerim-ro dagger, a flagship piece of the exhibition, synthesizes international influences: possibly of Byzantine, Sassanian, or Hephthalite manufacture, found in a 6th-century tomb in Gyeongju. The gold crowns, linked to shamanic traditions and Central Asian steppes, evoke the World Tree, a cosmic symbol. They reflect the spiritual role of rulers as intermediaries between heaven and earth, and the extraordinary flow of Eurasian craftsmanship.
5. Message to Visitors
Jason Edwards: What message would you like to convey to visitors?
Arnaud Bertrand: The multimedia displays (reconstruction of the Seokguram Grotto, animation of the founding myth according to the Samguk Sagi, representations of the valley of royal tombs) immerse the public in a space between the sacred, the real, and the imaginary.
I would like visitors to leave with the feeling of having discovered a great, lesser-known civilization, and with the desire to pursue their exploration of Korea. The exhibition shows an inventive, open society capable of transforming multiple influences into an original culture. If visitors realize that ancient Korea deserves a place alongside the great civilizations of antiquity and should not be confused with China or Japan in our collective imagination, then the exhibition will have achieved its goal.
Arnaud Bertrand: The multimedia displays (reconstruction of the Seokguram Grotto, animation of the founding myth according to the Samguk Sagi, representations of the valley of royal tombs) immerse the public in a space between the sacred, the real, and the imaginary.
I would like visitors to leave with the feeling of having discovered a great, lesser-known civilization, and with the desire to pursue their exploration of Korea. The exhibition shows an inventive, open society capable of transforming multiple influences into an original culture. If visitors realize that ancient Korea deserves a place alongside the great civilizations of antiquity and should not be confused with China or Japan in our collective imagination, then the exhibition will have achieved its goal.