Asian Culture Week to connect artists and people in region

Asian Culture Week, which kicks off on Aug. 22 in Gwangju, will celebrate diverse Asian culture by bringing artists and people of Asia together for a seven-day cultural bash, the Culture Ministry announced on Tuesday.

The festival is a part of the government’s “Hub City of Asian Culture” project, which aims to forge cultural ties with different Asian countries by transforming Gwangju into a cultural hub of Asia.

The biggest part of the project is the building of the Asian Culture Complex ― which is to be completed by 2014 ― a property where a forum of artistic and cultural exchanges will take place among artists, scholars and ordinary people of Asia.

“It was important for us to have the people of Gwangju be involved in this event,” Lee Byung-hoon, Assistant Minister of Office for Hub City of Asian Culture at the Culture Ministry, told reporters during a press meeting held in Seoul, Tuesday. “The goal is to have both artists and the people of Gwangju enjoy and celebrate this event together.”

The cultural event this year is divided into six categories: the 1st Asian Youth Culture Festival (Aug. 22 - 28); a performance of the Asian Children’s Choir (Aug. 28); Gwangju World Music Festival (Aug. 26-28); the Asia Culture Forum 2011 (Aug. 22 -24); open lectures on Asian culture (Aug. 26―27); and a symposium to introduce Asia’s creative spaces and institutions (Aug. 23 ― 26).

Featuring five genres of art ― music, fine art, dance, literature, and image art ― the Asian Youth Culture Festival has invited young aspiring artists from 26 different Asian countries. Participating youths will make presentations about the culture of their home countries, which they would like to share with the rest of Asia. They will also produce their own artistic projects and showcase them during the festival.

Gwangju World Music Festival, on the other hand, will offer a rare opportunity to experience different kinds of world music that are not widely known in Korea. The performing artists include Altan Urag from Mongolia; Amazigh Kateb from Algeria; and Omara Moctar Bombino from Niger.

A total of 10 foreign creative institutions, including Japan’s Tokyo Wonder Site and Zero Station in Vietnam, as well as 13 Korean organizations will participate in this year’s symposium to establish ties and make more opportunities to share their properties to enrich Asian culture and lifestyle.

For its open lectures, Mongolia-born Gyeonggi councilor Lee Ra will speak about her experience as a Mongolian immigrant in Korea as well as ideal multicultural policies for Asia.

The organizers will interview 100 residents of Gwangju prior to the cultural bash in order to get them interested while letting them speak about what they hope to see during the week.

For more information about the event, call (02) 3704-3430.

By Claire Lee (dyc@heraldcorp.com)