'Gangnam Style' returns as a landmark bronze sculpture

/ Yonhap

“Gangnam Style,” a mega-hit song by K-pop star Psy, returned to Seoul on Friday in the form of a giant landmark sculpture.

The sculpture was unveiled to the public in an opening ceremony at 7 p.m. on the eastern patio of COEX, a multi-cultural complex in the Gangnam Ward of southeastern Seoul. The event was hosted and organized by the city’s Gangnam Ward Office.

The bronze sculpture, five meters high and eight meters wide, is modeled after the signature reins-holding horse-riding hand motion of the Gangnam Style dance. Looked at from above, the giant hands appear to cover a globe. When sensors around the statue detect human motion, the landmark automatically turns on flashing lights and plays the Gangnam Style song.

The construction of the Gangnam Style sculpture came as a result of the district’s increasing calls for a landmark with indigenous culture and history on par with the Charging Bull of Wall Street in New York City and Piccadilly Circus in London.

Gangnam Ward plans to have cultural celebrations every July in commemoration of Gangnam Style honoring the world hit song’s contribution to the proliferation of Korean pop culture around the globe.

From May 4-8, the district administration is slated to hold a “C-Festival” with large-scale concerts and will decorate the ward’s special tourist zone. In October it will host another round of musical events, tentatively named the “Gangnam Festival.”

“I will make the (Gangnam) special tourist zone a must-visit destination for travelers from all around the world,” Gangnam Ward chief Shin Yeon-hee was quoted as saying by Yonhap News Agency.

"They say Paris set a goal to attract 100 million tourists. Gangnam Ward is not after the old ‘10 million by 2018’ goal any more. Reaching 50 million will only be a matter of time,” she added.