Self-made man patronizes global artists

International sculptors work on their projects at a quarry in the Gaehwa Art Park in the midwestern city of Boryeong during the four-week International Sculpture Symposium in October last year. / Courtesy of Mosan Museum

By Kang Hyun-kyung

BORYEONG, South Chungcheong Province — Im Hang-ryeol, 61, the founder and chairman of Gaehwa Art Park, describes himself as an ardent supporter of artists.

“If there is a ranking for art lovers, I’m sure I will be in the nation’s top five,” the businessman-turned-patron of the arts said during an interview with The Korea Times on Aug. 31 at the Mosan Museum.

Im Hang-ryeol, the founder and chairman of Gaehwa Art Park, speaks during an interview on Aug. 31 at the Mosan Museum in the park. / Korea Times

The museum is part of the 16-hectare park under Mount Seongju that stretches across the midwestern city of Boryeong and the neighboring city of Booyea. The spacious park also houses an outdoor concert stage, a swimming pool, a campsite and a quarry, among others.

Since 2004, Im has hosted the artist-in-residence program, dubbed the International Sculpture Symposium, through which local and international artists collaborate and network. The program was held twice in 2013, making this October’s edition the 13th in 12 years.

Im, who made his fortune from his quarry business, sponsors the artists’ travel, accommodation and other related expenses.

During the program, sculptors, painters and other artists from all over the world are invited to the park for four weeks. Sculptors are expected to complete one project and painters five or more following a theme. Last year, the theme was “Mother Nature and Peace,” and artists were encouraged to interpret the theme in their projects.

The Mosan Museum, left, became a local tourist destination. Hundreds of pieces of sculpture on display there draw nearly 600,000 visitors annually. / Korea Times

Artists in the program follow a tight schedule that starts from the morning and ends at night. During the day, they work on their projects in the quarry. In the evening, they present their backgrounds, their past projects and their future projects in front of their colleagues.

A discussion among the artists follows, which sometimes continues late into the night. At the end of the four-week program, the artists’ works are left in the park for public viewing.

An interesting aspect of the residence program is the sculptors’ use of the indigenous premium black sandstone, “oseok,” in their work. Im believes oseok is the best stone for sculptors. His unwavering confidence about the quality of the stone is what prompted him to finance the residence program. He said he wanted international artists to discover the premium value and quality of the stone at the month-long program.

“As you can see in this monument here, ‘oseok’ doesn’t require a sculptor to paint on it to make the inscriptions visible,” he said, pointing to a slim black, four-sided monument in the center of the Mosan Museum.

In the center photo, international artists and sculptors work on their projects at a quarry during the artist-in-residence program in last October. / Courtesy of Mosan Museum

“Inscriptions on the sandstone can be easily seen if artists use a certain technique. They remain intact through the years, whereas inscriptions on other stones, which are painted, will disappear in 10 years or so and will need to be repainted.”

Last year, some 30 artists from 20 countries participated in the residence program. So far, more than 100 artists from 90 countries have joined the program since its inception.

Some of the artists participated in the park twice or thrice upon agreement from both sides. The artists’ works make the park special. It draws nearly 600,000 visitors annually.

Im treasures all the artworks on display at the park. “Now, they are artworks, but they will become invaluable cultural heritage hundreds of years from now,” he said.

He said his patronage of the arts is natural.

The outdoor concert stage, right, is part of the Gaehwa Art Park. A campsite, swimming pool and a quarry are also located there. / Korea Times

His paternal grandfather, who also mingled with artists and writers, had considerable influence on his perception of art.

According to him, his grandfather was “seonbi,” which refers to a male scholar during the Joseon Dynasty who spent his life reading books and studying at home but does not have a profession.

His grandfather opened his residence for visiting artists and writers, and would direct his servants to take red clay from the nearby mountain and put it on the road to the front gate of his house whenever he had important guests, mostly artists, to his house.

“He would then ask the servants to make the road even with brooms to help the guests feel comfortable as they walked on the road. I didn’t ask why, but this was his way of showing his hospitality to his guests,” Im said.

His grandfather’s visitors stayed in a big guest room in the house. Im recalled that the guest room was always full with a diverse group of people, partly because of the free meals and accommodation.

Some of the guests were beggars and were there for the food, while some were calligraphers, writers and hunters who were looking for a place to stay the night on the way to their destinations, according to Im.

“Poor people flocked there, particularly during the barley hump, and they stayed there for 10 days or sometimes a month. I learned that needy people preferred a big house with plenty of trees in the garden because they believed owners of such houses tended to be kind and generous. My grandfather’s house was just like that. ”

The barley hump refers to the springtime starvation period during which farmers and their families in rural areas would forgo meals in the 1950s and ‘60s because crops they harvested the year before had all been consumed. The phenomenon disappeared as the nation achieved double-digit economic growth in the 1970s.

In the evening, Im said, those guests talked endlessly about their professions or their experiences.

“Hunters talked about how they captured tigers. Some educated people wrote calligraphy on wooden plates with brush pens because at that time, papers were not common. I used to clean the wooden plates they used and brought them back to them so that they could write calligraphy on the plates again,” he said.

Im admired his grandfather because the nurturing environment his grandfather created helped him become open-minded to people with diverse backgrounds, especially artists. In honor of his grandfather’s influence, he named the museum after his grandfather’s pen name, Mosan.

Im’s ties with artists resumed when he, at 26, became involved in the quarry business. His major clients were sculptors, who were also often guests at his house.

Im is currently working on another ambitious project. On weekdays, he goes down to the southern city of Youngju, where his other quarry is located.

There, he supervises employees who are excavating stone that will be used for two 5,000-square-meter museums that will be built in the Gaehwa park. One will be dedicated to music, film and art exhibits, the other for literary exhibits.

He felt the need for separate museums, partly because the number of artworks produced by international artists increase significantly every year. The patron of the arts also intends to provide a state-of-the-art space for local and international artists to present and display their artworks.

The project is part of his grand plan to host a global art festival, a plan that he started last year. He seeks to forge a partnership with the local government to make it happen.

Under the plan, sculptors, painters, folk dancers and culinary experts from 50 countries or more will be invited to the city to share their cultures and artworks to local audiences.

“I think Korea is an advanced country in terms of its economic standing, but it still has a long way to go when it comes to culture.,” Im said.

“If the country is able to host such a global art expo, I believe it will definitely benefit from the event.”