The Korea Tourism Organization held an awards ceremony for the '2026 Hiker Media Art Contest' on October 26 at its Seoul center, recognizing eight works that capture the diverse appeal of Korean tourism.
This contest was organized under the theme 'KOREA IN MOTION: Experience Moving Korea' to discover media art pieces that reinterpret Korea's charm from new perspectives. A total of 123 submissions were received from May to July, with participants selecting one of four keywords: emotional flow, spatial movement, urban rhythm, or the breath of nature.
The winners were chosen through a fair evaluation process that included blind scoring by expert judges and collaborative reviews.
The grand prize went to Lee Jun-seo for his work 'Gather, Han(韓)gyeol.' This piece creatively utilized traditional materials such as tiles, norigae, and mother-of-pearl to uniquely express Korea's dynamism and identity through innovative 3D graphics, earning high praise from the judging panel for maximizing the scale and spatial impact of the 32-meter media wall.
Honorable mentions were awarded to Jeong Woo-chan for 'SEOUL 2026' and Kim Ri-a for 'Blooming Korea.'
Other recognized works included: △Try Team (Cha Dong-min & Hwang In-jae) with 'Korea Flowing Outside the Window' △Son Eun-sung's 'Pa-an' △Jeong Ji-hye's 'The Breath of Taepyeong: The Trajectory of the Seasons' △Park Seong-geon's 'Connection' △Paeng Ji-hyun's 'Floating.'
The eight selected works will be continuously showcased to domestic and international visitors on the 32-meter giant media wall, 'Hiker Wall,' located on the first floor of the Hiker Ground, which attracts around 2,500 visitors daily. The Hiker Wall is accessible to anyone visiting the Cheonggyecheon and Gwanghwamun areas.
Min Byeong-seon, head of the Tourism Industry Division, stated, 'Through this contest, we have discovered immersive media art content that matches the scale of the Hiker giant media wall. We hope visitors to Hiker will experience the beauty of Korea in a unique way through the large media wall.'
* This article has been translated by AI.
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