SMTOWN Coex Artium Introduction and Tour

Are you a fan of EXO, Girls’ Generation, SHINee, Super Junior, f(x), BoA, TVXQ, Red Velvet, or SM Entertainment artists in general? Then you might have heard of SMTOWN Coex Artium. For those who are unfamiliar, SMTOWN Coex Artium is an entertainment complex centered around SMTOWN artists. Calling itself a “theme park in the city,” the Artium boasts six floors full of merchandise, photo opportunities, theaters, various activities, and more. We visited the popular spot ourselves to give Soompiers an up-close and personal tour!

Is it worth the hype? Only if you really like SM artists. Most activities and merchandise are pretty pricey. However, if you enjoy just taking everything in and snapping photos, you can enjoy the location without spending much money. Plus, you can always head over to Coex Mall if you get bored. Having gone once now, I doubt I’ll be heading back unless a friend asks me to. Check out our tour and decide whether or not you want to go for yourself!

SMTOWN Coex Artium is conveniently located as a part of Coex Mall which includes a shopping mall, convention centers, exhibition halls, and more. You can easily go to the Artium by taking the subway to Samseong Station (Line 2) and going to exit 5 and 6. The location can also be reached by various buses and taxis.

From this direction, you can either take the elevator or escalator. I recommend taking the escalator and turning right so you can see the cute EXO paper toy displays outside.

The merchandise store has everything you could ever need or desire, complete with your SMTOWN artist of choice! Besides official artist goods, the store also offers products endorsed by SM Entertainment stars as well as random products that the celebrities enjoy.

There’s even a display that conveniently shows you which items are currently the most popular. Among the ones presently displayed are the EXO paper toys, clear tumblers, Super Junior’s Super Nuts, various folders, photo cards, and artist pillows.

From candy to shoes and posters to earpieces, there’s so much to look at here. (Pssst… most of our time was spent here.) Take a look at some of the items available below. Sadly, extremely popular items, such as the pillows, were completely sold out.

SMTOWN Studio is a place where you can become an actual artist and check out their training studio, recording studio, music video studio, and photo studio. In order to experience various training and styling adventures, you will need to pay and make a reservation.

The most affordable option is “Tour 1” which includes a studio tour, Polaroid photos, and beauty counseling for 30,000 won (approx. 26 USD). As for the most expensive program, “Profile Video 2” gives you one minute of profile video shooting which takes around two hours for the cost of 500,000 won (approx. 427 USD).

Combining the words “live” and “library” equates to SMTOWN’s LIVErary Cafe where you can listen to your favorite SMTOWN artists’ songs and enjoy beverages and desserts. There’s plenty to look at here with their cafe, dessert bar, music lounge, and artist archive.

The cafe offers a variety of sweet desserts like macarons, cookies, cupcakes, and more. Standard cafe drinks are also available. Most notably, they have a selection of “artist ades” which are fruity carbonated drinks named after various SM artists.

We got a Super Junior ade (blue lemonade) and a SHINee ade (green apple); both tasted great. Honestly, we picked them because we preferred those flavors over mint (EXO) and rose (Girls’ Generation). We coincidentally ended up at a table that EXO’s Tao signed. We also saw a chair that Red Velvet’s Joy signed!

There were also cute cakes depicting various artists on display. These are not available for purchase.

The fifth and sixth floors hold theaters that are used for hologram musicals and concerts, live musicals and plays, as well as fan meetings and showcases. The fifth floor includes a photo box (for taking a realistic photo next to your favorite artist), hand printing gallery, and photo zones. You can even get large photos printed out for a cost ranging from 70,000 won to 150,000 won (approx. 60 USD to 128 USD).

The hand printing gallery includes SM C&C stars in addition to SMTOWN artists. The hand molds are not true to size; there’s no way our hands could be bigger than Kang Ho Dong’s in real life! Unfortunately, the hand matching device was not functioning when we visited. 🙁

There are also plenty of free photo opportunities with various SMTOWN artists!

3D printing can be done on the sixth floor where you can get a figurine of yourself and your favorite star. Check out these life-size versions of Suho and Changmin (not located on the sixth floor)!

You can also see various SM artists give you a tour in this video. (Note: This video was released in January 2015, so our tour is a more updated version of the location.)

We hope you enjoyed our tour of SMTOWN Coex Artium! Are you planning on visiting in the future? Let us know if you have any questions and we will answer in the comments section below! Also, if you want to see more pictures, feel free to ask in the comments as well. 🙂