32. No, it’s the Korean team!

Incheon International Airport Business Class Lounge.

“James?”

“Five!? Andre?”

Andre, professor of fine arts at Milan Institute of Technology in Italy, and James, head of sculpture at Yale University in the US, had a welcome reunion in Korea after nearly 10 years.

“That’s Andre! Long time no see. You still have that beard that doesn’t suit you.”

“Chuck. Is James still wearing that ridiculous bread hat?”

Although they met for the first time in 10 years, the two joked around and talked about each other as if they met yesterday.

“They said they didn’t know what human relationships would be like, who would have known that we would see this in Korea at Thorne’s request?”

“That’s right.”

The reason Andre and James came all the way to Korea, where they had no connection, was because of a request from their precious friend Thorn.

“I cannot refuse Thorn’s request.”

The son they are talking about is Son Ho-chul, the current head of the Sculpture Department at Seoul National University, and they invited two famous artists in the art world as judges for the Taebaeksan International Snow Sculpture Contest.

Andre, James, and Son Ho-chul were the closest friends among them as they studied art together at the Brera National Art School in Milan, Italy.

In particular, Andre and James lived as poor art students due to their poor families, and whenever they struggled with life, Ho-cheol Son, who was born with a gold spoon, helped them a lot from behind.

Andre and James felt deeply grateful for Son Ho-cheol’s kindness, and promised to do anything for Son Ho-cheol’s request.

“Well, it’s my first time in Korea, but the air is nice and the people are kind and not bad.”

Son Ho-cheol invited two friends who were professors at the best universities in the US and Italy, both advanced countries in the arts, in the hope that they would come as expert judges for the snow sculpture contest held in their home countries.

“Hey~~ Andre!! James!! Ha ha ha ha ha ha.”

“Oooh Thorn! I think I got younger. Are we the only ones getting old?”

Son Ho-cheol was so happy to see his friends for the first time in 10 years. Even at the age of 60, he liked them like a child and shook hands vigorously.

“Did you have a hard time coming?”

“Nono, it’s okay. It only took about 22 hours for both me and Andre.”

“Five? Didn’t it really take longer than you thought? Can I come again next month?”

“Oh, my God! I’m sorry. After all, I can’t stand Thorn.”

“Ha ha ha, just kidding. Thank you so much for coming, friends. I will serve you with all my heart so that you can get along well in Korea. Let’s go home first.”

***

Taebaek Snow Festival International Snow Sculpture Contest Stadium.

On the last day of the competition, all 25 participating teams completed the sculpture, reported the completion to the competition officials, and packed all their belongings and returned to their lodgings.

The full-fledged screening was scheduled to be open to the public from tomorrow, and for fairness, it was conducted in a blind evaluation method with only numbered signposts erected in front of each sculpture.

next day.

Finally, the works submitted to the International Sculpture Contest were opened to the public.

“Look at that! Your face is so big!”

“What does that show? Is there a polar bear inside the apple? Miraculous.”

Tens of thousands of visitors lined up to view the 25 snow sculptures, and after viewing all of them, they wrote down the numbers of the three most impressive works and put them in the ballot box.

After the audience vote, the expert judges were given a separate scoring time so that they could meticulously score the work.

Since there are 25 eye statues, there are some impressive works that will make your jaw drop, and many of them are soon forgotten.

However, the most impressive among them was the snow sculpture of ‘Seongwoong Admiral Yi Sun-sin’.

“Crazy, that’s real. Yayaya quick photo photo! take a picture. Insta angle, insta angle.”

“Oh, but why do you look so scary? Is this the Admiral Yi Sun-sin we knew?”

“At first glance, you are Admiral Yi Sun-sin, but what? Wow.. But it’s really scary.. No, he came out strong. The Japanese seem to run away as soon as they see them.”

“Let’s go over there quickly. Everyone is waiting behind you!”

Read more at noblemtl.com

Visitors were busy taking pictures while looking up at the statue of Admiral Yi Sun-sin by Kyu-ha with their mouths open and looking at it blankly.

As time passed, most of the visitors left the sculpture competition, and after that, the expert judges started scoring.

Andre, James, and Son Ho-chul went together and started grading in turn, starting with sculpture number 1.

The evaluation criteria were evaluated in items such as creativity, descriptive power, eye utilization, and detail of the work.

“Hmm.. The idea of this piece wasn’t bad, but the details are disappointing.”

“That’s right. I must have had a hard time coming up with ideas, but unfortunately my skills can’t support it.”

The three carefully checked each work, shared their opinions, and scored their own ratings.

“Oh, I can tell who made this just by looking at it.”

“Hmm.. is it also Euljibatar?”

They stopped at a snow sculpture in the shape of a polar bear roaring in pain inside an apple with a hole in it.

Mongolia’s Eulji Baatar team has often participated in international competitions and achieved excellent results, so most experts know them well.

“You can tell just by looking at it what you want to express.”

The three stood close to the statue, examining it carefully, admiring it.

“Your creativity stands out, and the details and description of the parts you want to emphasize are alive. I have no choice but to admit it.”

swipe swipe

As the three walked toward the end of their walk looking around other works after scoring on the evaluation sheet, there was a work that naturally stopped them.

“no···. What the hell is this?”

The work the three of them stopped at was the statue of Admiral Yi Sun-sin, sculpted by Kyu-ha, the last person in the order.

“To express the contraposto so well…”

Contrapposto is an Italian word that means ‘the exact opposite’, and is also used as a word for ‘symmetrical harmony’ in sculpture.

“It is not an exaggeration to say that I froze as I was running towards the enemy, so it is not an exaggeration to feel the dynamic liveliness.”

“Oh, it feels like I’m in front of the Sant’Antonio Church in Padua.”

The three professors couldn’t take their eyes off the statue of Admiral Yi Sun-sin under Kyu-ha, and they literally stuck to the statue and began to examine it as if observing it through a microscope.

“Hey guys, come here and take a closer look. Isn’t this ‘Symetry’?”

From the outside, most of them seemed symmetrical, but if you look closely, there are subtly different parts that are not perfectly symmetrical.

At Andre’s words, the other two looked closely at Kyuha’s work and let out a low admiration.

“Hey Thorn. This is a bit surprising. I want to ask the creator of this work why he expressed it like this.”

“Kkeuh… isn’t it to make it look more natural?”

“Yes. this man That’s normal. I wonder where that idea came from.”

“Hello guys! Come over here and look at the pattern on the armor side.”

James, who was looking at the armor by himself, urgently called the two.

“What else are you talking about?”

“Look at these irregular wrinkles and curves, none of them have the same pattern. This is a detail that can come out only if you understand human anatomy to some extent.”

“Huh…. Has there ever been a team that did this level of sculpture? Where are you? Is it RCA? No, he is an Eastern general, so he must be a Chinese Kaijun.”

“No, it’s the Korean team.”

Son Ho-cheol said firmly with confidence.

There is no way that overseas teams like China or the United States will be carving statues of Admiral Yi Sun-sin.

The problem was that no Korean team dared to come, no matter which team submitted a statue of this size.

“First of all, it is not a team from Korea University. So, is it Hongakdae? Or Gangneungdae? Where the hell are you?”

Andre and James approached Son Ho-cheol with recalled expressions.

“It’s been a long time since I came to play without thinking about this, and seeing an amazing work, the blood of an artist boils.”

“With nothing to see, I have nothing to say even if I give it the highest score.”

“Let’s go out at once. Scoring time is over.”

“Huh.. I want to quickly meet who made it.”

The three judges kept their eyes on the statue of Admiral Seongwoong Yi Sun-sin for a while, looking back even as they left the venue.

***

“ruler! We will announce the long-awaited 1st place.”

Host Han Byung-woo took a break for a while and couldn’t hide his surprise when he confirmed the first place.

“This is amazing. Something really unbelievable happened. 1st place will be announced. The long-awaited 1st place!!! Is it the only single team? This is Song Kyu-ha’s ‘Hero Unveils’.”

male voice

“for a moment! When it comes to song-gyu… aren’t you an actor?”

“That’s right… I thought I just participated in the event, but what happened?”

“Now, would the winners come out one by one and explain their works?”

Mongolia’s Eulji Baatar, who placed third, was handed the microphone.

Since all participants were proficient in English, the work was explained in English, and an interpreter provided simultaneous interpretation.

“hello. This is Euljibaatar from Mongolia. First of all, we are very happy to have won the award, despite the fact that there are many outstanding teams. Our team’s title, ‘Apple’, embodies the image of a polar bear trapped inside a homonymous pretty apple. This work expresses ‘apology’ towards animals suffering from excessive human desire that causes environmental destruction and global warming.”

clap clap clap

The audience generously applauded the artist who wonderfully expressed that the earth is not only human.

“ruler! The following is the acceptance speech of the Russian Ilya team.”

“I am honored to win an award in such a wonderful competition. Our work, ‘Reason for Existence’, was created to pinch the sad reality that distorts the false desires of modern people and the reason for existence….”

After that, the description of the second place work and acceptance speeches were announced, and finally, it was Kyuha’s turn.

When Kyu-ha grabbed the microphone, many reporters grabbed their cameras and started filming Kyu-ha frantically.

“hello. This is Song Gyu-ha. First of all, I would like to say thank you for giving me the undeserved award of Daesang. It was an honor to be able to work with so many great artists from all over the world while participating in this snow sculpture contest.”

“I named my work Hero Unveils because I wanted to take this opportunity to publicize the true figure of Seongwoong Admiral Yi Sun-sin, who was literally hidden. It was truly regrettable that we knew very little about Admiral Yi Sun-sin as a great saint, yet we knew very little about him. So based on a lot of historical evidence, I tried to express Admiral Yi’s true appearance the most closely.”

“Wow!!! It’s cool, Song Gyu-ha.”

Kyuha’s plain but sincere voice was transmitted to the audience through the microphone, and it gave a certain ‘resonance’ to everyone who listened.

At that time, a white-haired old man stood up from the VIP seat in the front row and took the microphone.

“Nice to meet you. My name is James, Professor of Sculpture at Yale University. I have a lot of questions, can I ask you a question?”