From the time you get off at KTX Gangneung Station, you can’t pass through it in vain. The “treasure hunt” journey, which becomes part of the work of art, begins, so you have to open your eyes wide and look around.
The substance is confirmed at Seobu Market (6 Imyeong-ro 155beon-gil), which can be reached within 10 minutes by car. A spacious resting place spread out in the CCC Lounge on the second floor of the modernized western market. In the middle of this place, an animation of Park Kyung-jong (43)’s “Time to Touch the Wave” (2022) was unfolded. The artist drew hundreds of landscapes inspired by the Gangneung sea on 5x5cm wooden tiles and gathered them like mosaics to create an animation like waves. A magnet was attached to 100 small tile works that were used as materials for the work and hidden near attractions such as Gangneung Gyeongpodae and Dongheon, as well as Noam Tunnel.
The new journey will be guided by the magazine Gangneung Tale of a City, which means “connecting people.” It is named after the story that is told from mouth to mouth, indigenous people and migrants, people who want to move in the future, narratives that connect time, and artists and experts of various genres.
The event, which runs until December 4, opened an art venue across a space within a 10-kilometer radius of the center of Gangneung City. It will be held in seven places, including Noam Tunnel, Seobu Market, Whale Bookstore, Jujube Mufine Art, Creative 1230, Traveler Platform Gangneung Suwol-rae, and Gangneung Walking Information Center. In addition to 15 artists who planted art everywhere, experts from various fields, including Baugil pioneers (mountain climbers), social cooks, graphic designers, human rights activists, and urban anthropologists, participated.
Myeongju-dong, where young creators began to gather through urban regeneration projects in 2020, is the main stage. At the Seobu Market Commercial Prosperity Association Education Center, a video of middle-aged and elderly adults who graduated from Jumunjin Elementary School remembering school songs and recalling memories through Chinese author Song Ming-ang (42). Park Ga-yeon (37) renewed the space with a work that expresses Gangneung Danoje through shadow play.
Social Chef Ko Yu-sun’s dining performance will be held at Seobu Market Yejip (Im Young-ro 157beon-gil 8). Using the Myeongju-dong grandmother recipe, which can be called Gangneung home-cooked meal, the food reinterpreted with potatoes, tofu, flounder, and kodari-rim is unique, surrounded by Hong Lee Hyun-sook’s self-reliant but resistant physical performance scene. It is regrettable that the event, which is held only on Thursday and Sunday, is closed early. The taste of the work comes to life when the feeling of the Jangpanji room is revived in a ruins-like space.
The space where the place-specific artistry stands out will be the Noam Tunnel (200-4, Noam-dong). The railroad that Mugunghwa-ho used to run, which once connected the Yeongdong area, turned into a park as the KTX line was opened. Noam Tunnel, which runs from Ipam-dong, Gangneung to Wolhwa Street in Jungang Market, is a favorite trail for local residents and part of Gangneung Bau-gil. Now, it is a place where outsiders flock to the filming location of the drama “Guardian.” Hong Seung-hye (63) shot a media work “Search Light” in a tunnel about 100 meters long. Inside the terminal, which witnessed the sad history of Japanese colonial era and the Korean War, the scene where the round oval light shines as if stroking in a sound reminiscent of the sound of water droplets is attractive. The scene of slowly leaving the tunnel and encountering brilliant autumn colors and colorful autumn leaves feels like part of art.
In Gangneung’s famous Whale Bookstore (Yulgok-ro 2848), Kook Dong-wan (43)’s #ToMyLittleArtist” collects pictures of his young daughter’s creativity and children from all over the place and shows them like murals. The paintings that infants draw freely like abstract artists are touching. In this space, there is also a three-dimensional work that sculpts the migrant bodies collected by Cho Hye-jin (36) while communicating with Gangneung migrants. During the festival, special book curations on children, art education, migration, and immigration will also be presented in relation to the artists’ works. 강릉 가볼만한곳
Although it is a little far away, why don’t you have a relaxing time at Jujube Mufine Art (18-21), a complex cultural space in Seongsan-myeon created by Kim Rae-hyun, a native of Gangneung. Standing with a wide field view, the modern art exhibition hall was built next to Imgyeongdang, a tangible cultural property, by the grandson of Kim Yeol, a scholar of the Joseon Dynasty. Writer Lee Chang-hoon (51) moved the nearby Namdaecheon River to freeze and display it, installed the process of melting the ice and becoming liquid like a tower, and expressed the cycle of time, while writer Lee So-yo (46) collected raw trees native to the limestone area of Seokbyeongsan Mountain in Gangneung and collected plants and minerals like a sample, and local poet’s writing fits well.