Seoul City Announces Open Call for Public Art Artists at Culture Depot and Seoul Grand Park

Implementation of Public Art Citizen Ideas, Call for Citizen Story-Based Project Proposals from the 12th
Proposal Reward of 3 Million KRW for First Selected Artists... Final Plans Developed with Expert Consulting

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 11th that it will publicly recruit participating artists for the '2021 Public Art Citizen Idea Implementation' project, which creates public art works with artists based on stories containing citizens' memories and imaginations. The works of the finally selected artists are scheduled to be installed in October this year at the 'Munhwa Bichuk Base' and 'Seoul Grand Park.'

Earlier this year, Seoul selected 'Munhwa Bichuk Base' and 'Seoul Grand Park' as the target sites for the artworks through a public contest. In March, citizen stories for each site were solicited, and through expert evaluation, a total of 10 citizen stories were finally selected. This recruitment is for artists who will create public art works based on the selected citizen stories. Any artist or team with Korean nationality who has participated in at least one exhibition can apply.

Artists are to propose artwork plans suitable for each site by sufficiently considering three principles?place, relationships, and daily life?based on five citizen stories per site. The final artist selection will proceed in two stages. Selected artists in the first round, numbering about 10 to 20 (teams), will receive a proposal reward of 3 million KRW each, and two final selected artists (teams) will be given the opportunity to install their works at 'Munhwa Bichuk Base' and 'Seoul Grand Park.'

Applications will be accepted for six weeks from the 12th to May 24th. Applicants can access the contest submission site, write their artwork plans, and submit them online. Lee Hye-young, Director of the Seoul Design Policy Division, said, "This project is a 'citizen-centered public art' project that installs works suitable for the spaces based on citizens' stories such as poetry, SF novels, and parenting diaries related to the two locations." She added, "We hope many capable artists will show great interest and participate to create special public art works based on citizens' stories."