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[HanCinema's Digest] Photography and Art

See how art and culture are coming together at the Winter Games in PyeongChang, this year's Gwangju Biennale will feature North Korean artwork for the first time, the new Olympic pavilion is the darkest building on Earth, and illustrator Bang Sangho combines the macroscopic world with cosmic fantasy.

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"4 Athletes Selected as Artists in Residence at the Olympics"

Did you know that the modern Olympic Games, particularly during its early years, also contained a "creative competition"? According to Francis Gabet, director of the Olympic Foundation for Culture and Heritage, "Art and culture is part of the DNA of the Olympic Movement", and this year four athletes have been selected to take part in its creative program. In this feature on The New York Times, writer Talya Minsberg explores the brief history of this lesser-known Olympic tradition and profiles the four athletes/artists who will be creating at this year's Games.

...READ ON THE NEW YORK TIMES

"North Korean art exhibition to be held during Gwangju Biennale"

This year's Gwangju Biennale, which takes places in September, will feature a number of artworks from North Korea, according to US-based BG Muhn. "I decided to organize the exhibition because I wanted to introduce the beautiful aesthetics embedded in North Korean art, which are upstaged by the political meanings attached to them", said Muhn in a recent interview with The Korea Herald. Muhn was clear to highlight some of the unique aspects of North Korean art, noting that, "North Korea has developed its own style of oriental painting. The style of oriental painting in North Korea is something that cannot be found in either South Korea or China". Watch this space...

...READ ON THE KOREA HERALD

"Asif Khan Unveils 'Darkest Building on Earth' For Winter Olympics Pavilion"

The Olympic pavilion in PyeongChang is the world's first super-black building that uses Vantablack VBx2 carbon nanotubes that absorbs an incredible 99% of light. "Looking at the building will be the closest experience to looking into space from a point on Earth", writes Keshia Badge for Arch Daily. The building was the brainchild of Asif Khan, a British architect, who says that walking into the new structure feels "as though you are being absorbed into a cloud of blackness".

...READ ON ARCH DAILY

"The Psychedelic Macro Micro Worlds of Bang Sangho"

Bang Sangho is a Korean illustrator who combines "the look of a microscopic world with the scale and mystique of alien planets that we can only imagine". Bang's world plays on the borderlands between science and fantasy, what can be observed and imagination, and in this interview you'll catch some of his surreal works, as well as hear what inspired him to embrace such cell-inspired images. "I like mystic atmospheres from pictures that coexist with microcells and huge planets", says Bong. When ask why he creates, Bong replied that, "creating art is self-satisfaction. Finding the certain process that realizes an imagination in a reality is delightful. Now when I gradually build an imaginative world, I feel a sense of achievement, and also a sense of duty".

...READ ON THREADLESS

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