Orientation & Cultural Field Trip
2018 CPI Orientation & Cultural Field Trip was held in Gwangju on 20-21 July.
This was the first official occasion to meet all participants. How exciting!
Gwangju is called as “Home of the Arts” with famous artists and festivals like Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju Design Biennale, etc. The Asia Culture Center established in 2015 is promoting Gwangju as the center of Asian culture. We wanted to introduce not just traditional aspect of Korean arts and culture, but also the contemporary one with the CPI participants. So, this is why Gwangju had become a destination for this trip and here, we hoped participants could feel past, present and future of Korean culture at the same time.
On the first day, participants visited the Asia Culture Center(ACC), Gwangju Biennale Foundation and attended the welcoming ceremony.
ACC, as a window of Asian Culture facing the World, is to promote mutual understanding and collaboration with Asian countries through exchange, education, research, etc with regard to Asian culture. It is archiving cultural/artistic resources throughout Asia and carrying out diverse international exchange programs. Following the guide, participants looked around the ACC, where is inherited the human rights and peace spirit of the May 18 Democratic Movement. ACC is the arts and culture complex with 5 different venues; ACC Cultural Exchange, ACC Creation, ACC Archive & Research, ACC Theater and ACC Children, and is an active player in international cultural exchange with the aim to let the world know about Asian cultures.
After the ACC, the participants visited Gwangju Biennale Foundation and met Mr. James B. LEE, the director of exhibition department. He introduced the Gwangju Biennale 2018 which will be held in from September 7 to November 11 with the topic of ‘Imagined Borders’. Gwangju Biennale is one of the leading international exhibitions of contemporary art, and is celebrating its 12th year in 2018.
The welcoming ceremony was held in the hall of the Shin Yang Park Hotel. All the participants in their own traditional costumes were warmly welcomed by Mr. Kim Yongrak, the president of KOFICE and Mr. Rhee Hanul, the deputy director of international cultural affairs division of MCST. Everyone had enjoyable time and opportunities for networking together, which was perhaps the chance to feel closer and understand better one another.
The second day was kicked off with the visit to Gwangju Traditional Cultural Center, which is composed of beautiful Hanok (traditional Korean-style house) buildings. Participants experienced Korean traditional fan-making. Cutting and attaching the paper on the wooden stick, and painting pictures themselves, participants from all over the world created their own styled-fans.
The last program was visit to Gwangju Media Arts Platform. Gwangju was designated as the UNESCO Media Arts Creative city in 2014 and the Gwangju Media Arts Platform was opened 2 years later. Participants could enjoy different media arts programs including hologram performances games, and exhibitions.
The CPI 2018 program began with this Orientation & Cultural Field Trip in Gwangju. Hopefully this trip would be a good memory for all during their five-month training period and has been an opportunity for the participants to find out the different charms of Korea.
