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/ 한국 The NLK hosts the exhibition You Became a Flower to Me

Department International Cooperation and PR Team
Registration Date 2022-06-28
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The NLK hosts the exhibition You Became a Flower to Me

The National Library of Korea (Chief Executive Suh Hye Ran) opened its exhibition Modern and Contemporary Poems: You Became a Flower to Me on April 25 in the Exhibition Hall on the first floor of the main building and in the courtyard. Celebrating the 100th year since the publication of Azaleas by Kim Sowol (Gaebyeok, 1922) and the birth of Kim Chunsu, “the poet of flowers,” this exhibition was designed to share with the public the beauty of Korean poems and the value of the NLK collection.

▲ A chronology of modern and contemporary poems themed on flowers

This section of the exhibition introduces 14 modern and contemporary poems themed on flowers in their order of publication. Selected in consultation with the Society of Korean Poets, the poems were displayed along with detailed information about each poem and some of the original materials housed in the library.

▲ Media Art “Nature Turns into Poems” by Lee Leenam

The exhibition includes media artworks by Lee Leenam, who used words from the poems and images of flowers to create art.

▲ Performance art “Mobile Landscape” by Kim Jong-gu

The artist Kim Jong-gu conducted a performance of writing a flower-themed poem using iron powder on an 11-meter-long piece of paper at the opening of the exhibition ceremony. This work, which was displayed on a screen, looked like a moving landscape. It will remain in the courtyard of the main building throughout the period of the exhibition. The opening ceremony for the exhibition was held on April 25 in the courtyard and was celebrated with a poetry reading by the poet Nah Tae-ju and the art performance by Kim Jong-gu. The exhibition will be open to the public until July 3.

“This exhibition provides an opportunity to enjoy modern and contemporary poems on flowers in a very different way through our visual, auditory, and olfactory senses. I hope it’s a healing experience for our citizens after the Covid-19 pandemic,” said an NLK official.