Soy Sauce Factory Embraces Art Museum: CEO Jin-Sun Park's "Art Experiment" at Sempio

"Employees Should Work in a Happy Workplace"
Sempio Space at Icheon Factory Renovated After 21 Years

Sempio's soy sauce production plant is located in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province. Earlier this month, as final preparations were underway at the soon-to-open art museum "Sempio Space," an employee who had worked there for over ten years accidentally broke part of a glass sculpture with a sharp cracking sound while cleaning it. The piece in question was an installation by contemporary artist Jun GK. The final letter "E" of the word "LOVE," made from glass, was shattered into pieces. Jin-Sun Park, CEO of Sempio, did not scold the employee.

Park said, "What matters more than a person's mistake is the meaning of the space we have preserved together." The company compensated the artist for the damaged work. The artist accepted only a portion of the payment and attached a note to the broken spot that read, "We broke up after six years together." This episode, created jointly by the artist, the company, and the employee, symbolically illustrates CEO Park's philosophy of a "workplace where art breathes."

Jin-Sun Park, CEO of Sempio Foods, poses ahead of an interview on the 12th at the Sempio Heritage Space in Jung-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jin-Hyung Kang

On October 14, Sempio announced that it had newly renovated and reopened "Sempio Space," the cultural and artistic venue within its Icheon factory, for the first time in 21 years. Under the experimental concept of an "art space within a factory," the venue has been reborn as a place where both employees and visitors can naturally encounter art in their daily lives.

This is not Park's first "art experiment." His cultural interests date back 25 years. In 1999, at Sempio's former factory in Chang-dong, Dobong-gu, Seoul, he hosted a large-scale art festival featuring more than 200 emerging artists under the age of 30. The attempt to transform an industrial facility into a cultural space was a fresh shock to the Korean art world at the time. Park recalled, "People working in gray concrete buildings inevitably become rigid," adding, "The idea was to turn the factory into a vast public art piece so employees could work in a happy environment."

After relocating the factory to Icheon, Gyeonggi Province in 2004, Park established the "Sempio Space" gallery within the plant, guided by his belief that "happy people create healthy and good products." At the time, the idea of building an art museum inside a manufacturing plant was unprecedented. This decision was not merely a spatial experiment but an effort to change the corporate culture.

This place is more than just an exhibition hall. It has functioned as a "laboratory for changing workplace culture through art." More than seven exhibitions of various themes and techniques have been held each year. For employees, it has become "the closest art space"; for customers, "a unique cultural experience"; and for artists, "an alternative exhibition stage."

A Sempio representative explained, "In the past, employees used to say art felt unfamiliar, but over the past 20 years, their attitudes have changed as they naturally encountered artworks. Recently, some employees have even inquired about purchasing pieces themselves."

Representative work of artist Jun GK exhibited at Sampyo Space, the cultural and artistic space within Sampyo's Icheon factory. Provided by Sampyo

The renewed opening exhibition is a solo show by Jun GK, titled "Occupying the Space III," which explores the relationship between space and existence through glass. The artist stated, "Anxiety is both a sign that makes us aware of freedom and a threshold for creating life," expressing existentialist philosophy through art. The representative works use glass and stainless steel to embody the anxiety and freedom of human existence.

What CEO Jin-Sun Park emphasizes is the process rather than the finished artwork itself. Just as art is not a completed product but a time created together, a factory only gains value when people and space come together in harmony.

Sempio's cultural and artistic experiments have extended beyond the factory walls. The company is collaborating with artists to transform its factories and research centers into "happy workplaces and community cultural spaces." The Icheon soy sauce plant's entire exterior has been decorated with works by contemporary artists through the "Sempio Art Factory Project."

The "Sempio Uri Fermentation Research Center," specializing in plant-based fermentation, is known as a "museum-like research institute." Storytelling artworks by artists are displayed in meeting rooms and corridors, inspiring researchers to unleash their creativity through artistic stimulation. Through such efforts, Sempio has received the "Mecenat Award" for creativity and the Prime Minister's Commendation (Grand Prize) in the design management category at the "Korea Design Award."