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KF Cultural Center Presents ‘CJ Picture Book Festival’

The second “CJ Picture Book Festival” was presented at the Korea Foundation Cultural Center (November 23-December 24, 2009). The growing popularity of this exhibition was evident from its receipt of 1,500 entries, from which 100 new picture books and 50 illustrations were selected for display.

The second CJ Picture Book Exhibition provided an opportunity for viewers to enjoy the diverse world of picture books, a flourishing cultural sector of the 21st century. Following the successful presentation of the first CJ Picture Book Exhibition in early 2009, the CJ Culture Foundation organized a second event paying more attention to substance in its efforts to identify noteworthy picture book creators, at home and abroad, and provide support for the publication of new picture books, thus contributing to the overall development of the contents industry. Under the two categories of newly published picture books and unpublished picture book illustrations, the CJ Culture Foundation received some 1,500 applications from publishers and writers from around the world. The exhibition displayed the 100 new picture books and 50 illustration works that had passed an initial selection review. During the exhibition period, Kveta Pacovska, a world renowned picture book author, visited Korea to help commemorate the CJ Picture Book Festival.



Opening the World of Imagination
Following featured guest David Wiesner’s presence at the initial event, the CJ Picture Book Festival invited Kveta Pacovska to visit Korea as the festival’s honored artist. While reflecting on the festival’s theme, she remarked: “I am very much pleased to have an opportunity to introduce my works to Korean readers. Here are my illustrations, books, thoughts, paper works, and all the other things I love. I hope I will meet many people here and that they will love my works.” This 81-year-old author and grandmother, who was born in Prague, started to works of various genres, including works of graphic design, painting, and conceptual art, after graduating from the School of Applied Arts in her hometown in 1952. Since the 1960s, she has published unique, three-dimensional, and highly stimulating picture books. Her illustrations, although for children’s books, often feature abstract images. However, children show little difficulty in enjoying her creative works. Instead, the vivid colors and unusual forms in her illustrations enable children to use their imagination to come up with unbounded interpretations.
Picture books stimulate the senses of children and help to broaden their imagination, rather than requiring any particular understanding. In this way, a variety of new twists are likely to unfold in her “Cinderella” work, breaking free of the familiar story line. Her picture books, which are adored by readers around the world, have been translated into dozens of languages, and she has staged more than 75 solo exhibitions of her books and illustrations. The CJ Picture Book Festival displayed 50 of Pacovska’s illustrations from her numerous picture books, such as “Grun, Rot, Alle,” “Flying,” and “The Little Match Girl,” along with 28 prints and posters, and five-scale large installations.



Global Journey through Picture Books
Students and families with young children were seen roaming about the exhibition area, while leafing through the various books on display. The exhibited items were positioned lower than usual so as to be closer to the eye level of younger children. The significance of the CJ Picture Book exhibition could be felt in the laughter of children who clambered onto the unique installation works as well as those that took the time to look through one picture book or another, while smiling quietly at the humor and ingenuity of the countless illustrations and images.
A seating section along a gallery wall enabled visitors to leisurely pore over any picture book that caught their fancy. In addition to the selected illustrations and picture books, the exhibition also showed Korea’s best-known animation works, such as “The Grandfather with a Mesh Bag Returns,” “The Ice Boy,” “Incredible Farts,” “The Lady Who Does Not Eat,” and “The Rabbit Has Grown Big.” There were also showings of “The Sun Rides a Wagon,” which had been exported to Japan for local broadcast, and the display of Kv?ta Pacovska’s interactive multimedia work “The Alphabets.”
In conjunction with the CJ Picture Book Festival,
a “Picture Book Forum” was presented at the CJ Injaewon on November 24, 2009. The international jurors of the CJ Picture Book Awards participated in the forum and engaged in lively discussion about the international trends of picture books. The CJ Picture Book Awards Ceremony was also held for the purpose of recognizing and publicizing the high quality, creative works of culture and art.



The jury members of the CJ Picture Book Awards included Dinah Stevenson, publisher of Clarion Books (U.S.), Kozue Shibata, freelance editor (Japan), Pietro Corraini, art director (Italy), and Cho Seon-gyeong, professor of SI Picture Book School (Korea). The jurors selected five works for the category of New Publications and another five entries for the Illustrations category. During the month-long festival, visitors enjoyed the varied stories of the picture books and illustrations on display, which relied on visual images rather than the written word to convey their messages.

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