2013 KOTRA Hallyu Art Competition Winners' Exhibition
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[KOTRA Open Gallery Series] 2013 KOTRA Hallyu Art Competition Winners' Exhibition
About a month ago AT&D Korea Blog featured the KOTRA Open Gallery exhibition 'Life of Small Companies'.
KOTRA has recently opened a new Open Gallery exhibition about Hallyu that shows how Hallyu is influencing the world. Let us have a look around this Open Gallery exhibition.
The first KOTRA Hallyu Art Competition 2013
The first KOTRA Hallyu Art Competition 2013 took place over a three-month period from last April. The competition attracted original entries under the topic of Hallyu from all categories of visual arts, including drawing, design, video, handicraft and sculpture.
Hallyu (한류, Korean Wave) is the term coined to describe the rapid global spread of Korean culture. Starting with Korean pop culture, Hallyu now encompasses a wide range of cultural areas such as fashion, food, design, performance, and art.
As such, the KOTRA exhibition is significant in the way Hallyu is reinterpreted and represented though a variety of art forms as it sweeps the globe.
A panel of experts selected seventeen entries as best representing the spirit and potential of the exhibition. The winning entries will be displayed at the KOTRA exhibition both at home and abroad, including at the Korean Expo 2013 in Istanbul in early September, and are expected to enhance to the appreciation and reputation of Hallyu.
The following are some of the competition winners.
Grand Prize: Omi Rha – The Complete Symbols of Longevity Series_India Dream
Against a background of nature and attached to contemporary space, the complete symbols of longevity make surreal process through the nebulous boundaries between the real and ideal worlds. Blending native Korea animism and Chinese Taoism, the symbols of longevity represent a metaphorical expression of the desire for perpetual youth.
Gold Prize: Kangwoo Han Myeong-dong 2012.7.14 PM12:12 37°33'9", 126°59'0"E
Crowds thronging the streets of Myeong-dong, one of Seoul's busiest districts, create random yet serendipitous patterns and trace images that represent Myeong-dong's vibrant atmosphere and reflect the dynamic nature of Korea as a whole.
Finding a formative value in random passersby on the street, by casting them in different forms Han also highlights the insensibility of individuals dwelling in the heart of the city, unaware of one another's value.
Silver Prize: Jung-hee Lee – Vogue Girl, September 2011, P206
Popular culture is an essential part of Hallyu.
This piece recreates a pictorial for a fashion brand that originally featured a Korean girl band. Transforming the photo into a painting that captures the Zeitgeist and the spirit of youth, the piece portrays an everyday scene that seems more real than reality, like something imagined. Apparently unremarkable and easily overlooked, the scene at the same time embodies popular culture, something about the individuals, their personalities, figures and appeal of the visual that is the sensibility of youth.
Silver Prize: Myoung-sook Lee – Mother/Mother-In-Law
Clothes remind us of the people who wore them and the memories of moments spent with them.
Her memories may overlap with mine or be wrapped up with memories that I wish to preserve. Sometimes the memories are sad, frustrating and painful, but when reproduced in images they become reunited with magically beautiful memories. Thus through clothes unspeakable matters of the heart are conveyed and through clothes we meet and reconcile.
The KOTRA Hallyu Art Competition Winners' Exhibition continues until August 18.
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For further information, please check out KOTRA official website : http://www.kotra.or.kr/foreign/kotra/KHENKT191M.html?TOP_MENU_CD=KOTRA
Open Gallery Information
Opening hours
- Weekdays – 09:00~18:00
- Weekends and Public Holidays – 10:00~17:00
Location
- Open Gallery is being held on the ground floor of the head office of KOTRA.
- Address: Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), 13, Heolleung-ro, Seocho-gu, Seoul, Korea