Han
Seok Hyun and Kim Seung Hwoe’s Das Dritte Land Wins Award in Germany
Graduates Han
Seok Hyun and Kim Seung Hwoe (School of Visual Arts) won the Deutscher
Einheitspreis in silver in the field of culture with their garden work, Das
Dritte Land (The 3rd Country), in Germany. The Federal Agency for Civic
Education, which has been awarding outstanding projects that promote harmony
and coexistence between East and West Germany every year from 2002 to 2012,
created the award to celebrate the 30th anniversary of German reunification.
Celebrating the
30th anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, Han and Kim installed an
artificial garden, The 3rd Country, in Kulturforum,
central Berlin. They planted about 1300 wildflowers of 45 species that inhabit
the Baekdudaegan mountain range that runs across the south to north of the
Korean peninsula. With this garden, they attempted to reproduce a landscape
painting from Joseon Dynasty King Yeongjo, “Inwangjesaekdo” by Jeong Seon, into
three-dimensional water painting. Earlier, they discussed with the North Korean
embassy in Germany to directly receive North Korean plants through the Inter-Korean
Joint Liaison Office, but their plan called off after the relationship between
the two Koreas came to a standstill afterward.
Since 2019, the
garden has offered a place of meditation and relaxation to visitors from all
around the world. It also served as a public sphere for many artists who wish
to address and share their artistic perspectives on the topics of division,
boundary, and Utopia. From July to October 2019, the artists residing in Berlin
indeed showcased performances to communicate their different views on these
topics.
In 2016 and
2017, Han participated in the Bethanien Residency Program for artists from
around the world in Berlin. Now she travels back and forth between Berlin and
Seoul for work. Kim, who studied Fine Arts for major at the School of Visual
Arts, focuses on the topic of nature and researches on local native cultures
that bases on public art, encouraging interaction between art and landscape.
She participated in the 2015 DMZ Project and installed a garden library in Naju
city in 2016. With the cooperation of Berlin, the opening of The 3rd
Country extended to May 2021.
Meanwhile, a
total of 140 projects entered the Deutscher Einheitspreis this year. The
judging procedure took place at an online platform. In the first round, 15,000
citizen votes selected fifty projects. In the later process, seven juries
determined final winners, classifying them into four gold awards, six silver
awards, and twenty bronze awards among a total of thirty winners. The award
ceremony took place online due to the COVID-19 situation.