In Korea, several artists collaborate to create the most elegant Ferrari 12Cilindri, paying homage to their country: "What does it mean to be Korean?"

For over a decade, Korea has fascinated the world. Its music, its cinema, its kdramasits fashion and design are exported at lightning speed. Yet, behind this global visibility, one question remains open, almost elusive: what does it really mean to be Korean today? This is precisely the question that COOL HUNTING has chosen to answer, not with a manifesto, but with an exceptional automobile. A Ferrari 12Cilindri unique, shaped as a collective work of art, born of an unprecedented dialogue between Italy and contemporary Korea.

A Ferrari for cultural expression

This unusual project takes the form of a Ferrari 12Cilindri Tailor Made, designed and artistically directed by COOL HUNTING, under the impetus of its founders Evan Orensten and Josh Rubin, accompanied by JaeEun "Jane" Lee. For over two years, across three continents, designers, engineers and artists worked together, not to decorate a car, but to create a genuine cultural exchange. The Ferrari 12Cilindri, with its twelve-cylinder engine, becomes a metaphor here. Independent elements converging into a single continuous movement, a collective force transformed into pure energy. An image that echoes Korean history, marked by endurance, resilience and dazzling modernization.

Rather than freeze Korean identity in fixed symbols, the project explores its tensions. Between tradition and innovation, slowness and urgency, restraint and intensity. Korea's history spans ancient kingdoms, the Joseon dynasty, colonization, war, division, then a brutal acceleration towards modernity. A culture defined less by domination than by the ability to endure. This ambivalence is reflected in Goryeo celadon ceramics, described as "green as emerald, brilliant as crystal". A color suspended between blue and green, never totally stable. This ambiguity gives rise to three fundamental forces: "jeong", the deep emotional bond between people, "han", the silent accumulation of pain and memory, and "ppalli-ppalli", the permanent urgency that propelled Korea towards modernity.

Yoonseul

These concepts take concrete form in Yoonseul, an entirely new shade developed in collaboration with Ferrari for this project. Inspired by traditional celadon, the reflections of the Han River and the green neon of Seoul's nightlife, this transitional paintwork evolves with the light and the environment. The bodywork of the Ferrari 12Cilindri never looks exactly the same. It changes, transforms and captures the moment.

One of the project's most poetic gestures can be found on the hood. Artists GRAYCODE and jiiiiin have transformed the vibrations and sound of the Ferrari engine into a musical score. Subtly painted on the Yoonseul bodywork, it only fully appears with movement and light. This work is intended to be interpreted during a multi-sensory performance, while a framed score accompanies the car, extending the experience beyond the automobile itself.

Lacquer

Beneath this changing surface lies another story, that of Korean Ottchil lacquer, worked by artist TaeHyun Lee. Difficult to extract, toxic in its raw state, over time it becomes an exceptionally resistant material. A paradoxical material, born of a wound inflicted on the tree, which is transformed into lasting protection. On the Ferrari, this philosophy is expressed in the gearshift paddles and brake calipers.

Braiding

Collective cohesion, a pillar of Korean history, finds expression in the work of Dahye Jeong. Using Malchong, a horsehair weaving technique once reserved for the aristocracy of the Joseon era, she develops an original three-dimensional textile. The pattern runs through the cabin, from the seats to the panoramic roof, where it casts moving shadows inside the car. A reminder that Korean strength lies in interconnection, in fragile threads that, once assembled, become structure.

Reinventing tradition without freezing it

Designer Hyunhee Kim, for her part, draws inspiration from traditional Joseon furniture to rethink shapes, proportions and materials. Her influence can be seen in the translucent badges, a first for Ferrari, but also in the interior design, right down to a trunk conceived as a personal keepsake box. The final logo, "12 한", merges Ferrari's twelve cylinders with the Korean character han, borrowing its shapes from the clouds of the Munjado. An image of the wind blowing through the mechanics, linking memory and movement.

This Ferrari 12Cilindri Tailor Made is neither a simple styling exercise nor a decorated car. It is the fruit of a profound dialogue between two cultures. Under the motto "Inspired by Tradition, Driven by Innovation", Ferrari has created one of its most elegant and conceptual creations.