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August 4, 2025

The eye of Minhwa 민화

Art & Craft Category - Talk Talk Korea contest 2025

I am Ben. I am originally from Eastern France. I studied in Paris and worked in creative fields. My artistic expression combines architectural symbols, figures and space atmospheres. The viewer can navigate between abstraction and recognizable objects.

Here is the description of my artwork: The eye of Minhwa 민화

Traditional Korean folk art, Minhwa, is a colorful painting popular from the 17th to the 19th centuries, until the end of the Joseon era. Free from formal constraints, Minhwa expresses honest desire and positive wishes for others with bright colors, humor, and hope.

I wanted to integrate these values into this artwork with a modern eye toward Korean cultural heritage.

I used traditional colors in Korean culture such as blue, red, yellow, black, and white. The heart of the illustration represents a Taegeuk, which expresses universal balance. All around it are traditional museums, historical sites, natural landmarks, or other places of interest in Seoul. They interact with each other, it represents the balance.

Like Pojagi, this artwork is unique. It is assembled from several varied sequences or situations that create both decorative and symbolic value. Indeed, it represents the diversity of Korean culture, such as arts and entertainment, Korean traditions and customs, gastronomy, landscapes, Korean history, and even its architectural heritage.

Like Han Kang's characters who remember their dreams, I wanted to use the notion of dreaminess to create a constellation of symbols that invite us to dream. These symbols are characterized by successive layers of features, ideas, and situations.

The viewer of the artwork then becomes a reader. The eye interprets the multitude of successive layers, and the work becomes an open book. The reader can travel through it. There is a notion of searching, recognizing, or discovering hidden objects, places, or symbols that highlight Korea through this illustration.

The artwork offers a multitude of perspectives that intersect and coexist between the past, present, and future.