World Picture Books Are Diverse, Inspiring
By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter
Images are more powerful than words ― at least in the world of picture books, where fantastic and imaginative pictures rule over text.
A diverse collection of picture books and illustrations from around the world are now on display at the 2nd CJ Picture Book Festival at the Korea Foundation Cultural Center located in Sunhwa-dong, Seoul.
A total of 1,565 entries from 51 countries competed in the festival's CJ Picture Book Awards. As a result, 100 finalists for new publications and 50 finalists for illustrations were selected from the first round.
Among theses, five winners for newly published books ― "Las Duas Estradas" (Two Roads) from Portugal, "El Leon Kandinga"(Lion Kandinga) from Spain, "Mini Maxi" from France, "Robinson Crusoe" from Spain and "Time Flies" from Lebanon ― were honored during the festival.
"Las Duas Estradas," written by Isabel Minhos Martins and illustrated by Bernardo Carvalho, is about the two kinds of roads ― the old and the new. Both routes reach the same destination; both have their own twists.
Written by Boniface Ofogo and illustrated by Elisa Arguile, "El Leon Kandinga" focuses on Kandinga, a lion, to explain that cruelty and egoism disgrace all those who forget to share what they have with others. This African popular tale portrays human behavior and has an important moral.
"Mini Maxi," written and illustrated by Didier Cornille, is a tiny book with a minimalist design that offers subtle images. The author starts from simple visual details and turns the empty into the full, the vertical into the horizontal and the round into the square.
"Robinson Crusoe" by Ajubel is a novel in images inspired by Daniel Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe." Of all the reincarnations of the famous story, this edition is surely the one that goes the farthest, since it has no words at all.
"Time Flies," written and illustrated by Susana Reisman, is a book with no words that uses photographs of the hands and numbers of different watches to create a world where time stands still. This book invites readers to fly through time and look at things not as we think they are but as we construct them to be.
The festival also features internationally renowned picture book author and graphic designer Kveta Pacovska's works as the guest of honor.
Pacovska was born in Prague in 1928 and graduated from the Prague School of Applied Arts and started on an artistic journey encompassing genres as graphic design, painting and conceptual art.
She developed her own style of picture books in the 1960s, one that was three-dimensional and engaged all five senses. This innovative and idiosyncratic style, never before seen in the word of illustrated books, is what made her name famous. Her books have been translated into dozens of languages and her art has been showcased at more than 75 solo exhibitions between 1961 and 2009, attesting to her status as a beloved picture book author.
Kveta's books feature vivid colors and simple lines, and often incorporate aluminum mirrors, overlapping pieces of paper and three-dimensional pop-ups. Her geometrical rendering of the alphabet and numbers are also central to her creative world, constituting a veritable language of her own.
She won the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international distinction given to authors of picture books, in 1992.
The festival is also holding its Picture Book Animation Screening to foster new and innovative approaches to illustrated books. Infused with artistic intelligence and informed by a broad spectrum of techniques derived from visual design, editing, illustration, typography and photography, these special picture books sparkle in a new light.
Apart from the exhibition of original artworks and books, the festival's Picture Book Library enables all visitors to enjoy the world of picture books. The finalists' books are available for perusal as well as a wide selection of other notable original works.
The exhibition will run through Dec. 24 at the Korea Foundation Cultural Center in Sunhwa-dong, Seoul. Tickets cost from 3,000 to 5,000 won. For more information, visit www.cjbook.org.