International cultural leaders to hold forum in Seoul

Cultural leaders from major economies will gather in Seoul this weekend to experience Korean culture and discuss how to better promote it.

The Corea Image Communication Institute, or CICI, which organized the C20 (Culture 20) side event during the G20 Seoul Summit last year, will hold the Culture Communication Forum from Sunday to Tuesday at a variety of cultural venues in Seoul, inviting 14 cultural icons from 13 countries.

Participating cultural leaders include Willy Bogner, chairman of Bogner GmbH & Co.KGaA and chief of the Munich 2018 Olympic bid; Leslie Koch, president of Trust for Governors Island from the U.S.; Anatoly Kim, Russian novelist and winner of Yasnaya Polyana Literary Prize of Tolstoy Foundation; and Susanna Nicklin, Director Literature at the British Council London, U.K.

Photographer Kim Jung-man and actor Ahn Sung-ki are the Korean participants at the forum.

On Sunday, the participants will visit Changdeok Palace, Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art and attend Korean traditional musical “Miso” at Chongdong Theater.

The next day’s schedule includes a visit to the National Museum of Korea to see “Banchado,” a video clip that reenacts some of the royal protocols described in “Uigwe” books from the Joseon era. They will also experience the Korean traditional lifestyle at the Korea Furniture Museum and attend dinner hosted by Culture Minister Choung Byoung-gug on Monday evening.

On Tuesday, the participants and 300 local opinion leaders will discuss promotion of Korean culture under three themes ― verbal communication, visual communication and foods. The forum will wrap up with a closing gala at the Westin Chosun Hotel in central Seoul where CICI Korea theme song “Four Seasons of Love” will be sung by the theme song competition winner Kim Sin-a and opera singer Woo Jung-hoon. Architect and singer Yang Jin-seok composed the song and wrote the lyrics in K-pop style, as K-pop has become increasingly powerful in promoting the Korean Wave, the CICI said.

The organizer said it chose artist Kang Byung-in’s calligraphic work “Let’s Smile” as the main logo design of the CCF 2011, to symbolize the joy of interactive communication.

The CCF 2011 is sponsored by the Foreign Ministry, the Culture Ministry, the Korean Overseas Culture and Information Service as well as conglomerates including Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Motor and Asiana Airlines.

By Kim Yoon-mi (yoonmi@heraldcorp.com)