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.