UNESCO Incheon hosts meeting for networking Asian art space

A conference aimed at networking the non-profit art spaces in Asia was held Wednesday (May 23) at the meeting room of the Incheon Associations of UNESCO Club. It was held as part of on-going symposium and archive exhibition on May 21-27 under the title of “Altering the Map of Asia, Altering Asian Creativity”. Directors and curators of Asian countries involving Hong Kong, Bangladesh, Taiwan, China, Singapore and South Korea are taking part in the gathering.

The main reason of this gathering, hosted by the Incheon Associations of UNESCO Club, is to help poor artists exhibit their works without financial burden by networking non-profit art spaces in Asian countries. It is also aimed at providing spaces to enable cross-cultural cooperation in developing exhibition projects and new Asian cultural contents.

Ha Seok-yong, president of UNESCO Incheon Association, said that cultural exchanges so far were steered by government organizations and needed a lot of money. To realize the exchanges in the real sense of meaning, as many artists as possible should be able to participate in such programs. That’s why art spaces that can be rented at cheap prices, are needed, he said in an interview with The AsiaN.

“When we look around carefully, there are many small galleries that fail to attract people’s attention. But, I think, they are the places that can be converted to art space rendering cultural pleasure to the people. Now is the time to connect them and create art space to which both the artists and spectators can easily approach,” he went on to say.

He further said “it is not too much to say that the fate of Incheon depends on how much the city could be internatonalized.” It already has Incheon International Airport, Songdo International Complex and a lot of other projects are underway for its internationalization.

The art symposium is part of its efforts for its internationalization projects with a hope to make a platform for continuous exchanges between the participating countries. We also anticipate it will provide an Asian perspective in developing exhibition programs and appreciating the values of Asian art and culture, he said.

Choi Sun-hwa sun@theasian.asia