This paper deals with the cardinal concept of spatial organization manifested through the 2000 Gyeongju World Culture Expo, and the comprehensive relationships between cultural activities based on this concept and various aspects of the cultural landscape manifested through the inside and outside establishment of the Expo venue. The Gyeongju World Culture Expo is a grand-scale cultural exposition connecting local culture with world culture, economy and the cultural festival with the support of the central government and the provincial governing body. Thus. the space of the Gyeongju World Culture Expo is closely related between the political and economical aims of the Organizing Committee and the practical methods and perceptive attitudes.
Although the Gveongju World Culture Expo was initiated and sustained by the central government and the provincial government to spur local economy and cultural creativity in the ancient city, combining world culture, technology and tourism, it was dominated by the public institutions rather than by the private ones. To make the World Culture Expo more successful, it is mandatory that the close cooperative relationship between the private enterprises and the local residents. When the private enterprises make investment on the basis of the guidelines and direction of the public institutions and the participating local residents carry out thoroughly cultural events, the local economy will be maximized and at the same time the local cultural tradition will be creatively renewed on the basis of their imagination and creativity. If the public sectors dominate in planning the World Culture Expo, the local residents will lose not only their chances of creative contributions to the Expo but also deprive the rights of enjoying it on their part.
What should been taken into a serious consideration is that the success of the Expo is not necessarily dependent on making Korean traditional culture into the sources of tourism through the local world cultural festival. For the Expo, the pivotal importance lies in the financial and political support. In addition, the planners of the Expo should make decisions which tangible or intangible cultural properties can be possibly included in the list of tourism, and figure out the number of the expected visitors to the cultural properties. Based on these data in connection with the short term and long term plan for the creation of benefit, the budget for each cultural event should be alloted properly.
Reflecting on the relations between the venue of the World Culture Expo and the ancient capital Gyeongju throughout the first and second World Culture Expo, it should be pointed out that the importance of the historical city has been disregarded. In addition, the cultural events of the Expo should be designed to display the local culture and the daily lives of the local residents in new terms. The planners also pay close attention to the expected commercial profits of the residents living in the neighboring areas. In other words, the cultural resources in the neighboring areas should be not only developed, but also these cultural resources should be widely made known. In this way. the economic benefits will be circulated around the main city, Gyeongju, and these benefits will be reinvested continually to the favourable conditions of creating the local culture. In doing so, much more budget can be alloted to performance events rather than the exhibitions of world relics. Although the Expo Organizing Committee appears to have been more concerned with investing the budget into constructing the buildings and expanding the facilities, more consideration should be given to the construction of a cultural image of the local residents in a long term basis.
The Expo venue should be a place for the local residents to confirm and express their cultural identity. There will be no Gyeongju World Culture Expo without the participation of the residents in Gyeongju, and there will be no festival without the expressions of the local residents. Otherwise, the festival will lose completely its social as well as cultural meanings.