양평에선_환경미술제가 한창!

Look for hidden Yangpyeong art

 

Artists started to gather in Yangpyeong-gun, Gyeonggi Province since a couple years ago. They were attracted to the area's clean environment which was hardly touched by factories or other polluting facilities.

Yangpyeong is designated as a special eco-friendly agricultural zone and has been Seoul's water source for a long time.

Highlighting the region's pure and artistic image, the second Yangpyeong Eco Art Festival is currently running under the title "Echo of Eco."

A total of 140 installation works, paintings and photos that arouse public attention to protect the ecosystem and the environment are placed in every nook and corner outdoors around the Han River Eco Park, Gangha Sewage Treatment Facility, Gangsang Sports Park, and inside three galleries -- Gallery Wa, Manas Art Center and Dr. Park Gallery.

"Visitors can look around the exhibits like they are treasure hunting. They are well-blended with nature so some will be hard to recognize," said Park Cheon-nam, curator of the festival and Seongkok Museum.

The festival benchmarked "Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial" of Japan, which successfully revived its mountainous region which was turning into ruins after sudden urbanization.

In this festival, 65 artists -- including some who are Yangpyeong-based -- have come up with creative artworks, hoping to bring out similar or even better results as the one in Japan.

For example, the members of the Contemporary Art Research Center of Kyung Hee University placed a giant log on top of the Sewage Treatment building and made a person figure dangerously hang from it, expressing the urgent situation our environment is facing.

Installation artist Lee Jong-bin covered an evergreen tree with a big head form made with steel wires and named it "Growing Thoughts." Yes, the growing tree is the visualization of how a person's thoughts grow, obviously more sharply as time goes by.

The exhibits outdoors are to be installed permanently after the exhibition is over so that residents can still enjoy them.

The show runs through Nov. 1. For more information, call (070) 7137-6353 or visit www.ypart21.net

(claire@heraldm.com)

By Park Min-young