Roof Tiles, Norigae and Mother-of-Pearl Reimagined as 3D Art... Eight Works Selected for Hiker Media Art Competition

Korea Tourism Organization holds first media art competition... 123 works submitted
Lee Junseo's "Gather, Han-gyeol" wins top prize... Traditional motifs reimagined for modern times
Works to be screened on an ongoing basis on Hiker Ground's 32-meter media wall in Seoul's Cheonggyecheon district

A work that reinterprets traditional Korean motifs such as roof tiles, norigae ornaments and mother-of-pearl as three-dimensional digital imagery won the top prize in the Korea Tourism Organization's first media art competition. The winning works will be presented to domestic and international tourists on the 32-meter media wall at Hiker Ground, a tourism promotion center on Cheonggyecheon in Seoul.

Awardees of the "2026 HiKR Media Art Contest" and officials from the Korea Tourism Organization pose for a commemorative photo in front of the large media wall at HiKR Ground in Jongno-gu, Seoul. The screen features winning works, including "Moye, Han-gyeol" by artist Lee Junseo, which received the Best Excellence Award. Korea Tourism Organization

The Korea Tourism Organization said on October 27 that it had selected eight winning works at the awards ceremony for the “2026 Hiker Media Art Competition,” held on October 26 at its Seoul Center in Jongno-gu, Seoul.

The competition was launched for the first time to express the landscapes, culture and nature of Korea through media art and to discover works for display on Hiker Ground's large media wall. A total of 123 works were submitted from May through July, and the winners were chosen following blind scoring by experts in each field and a joint review.

Lee Junseo's “Gather, Han-gyeol” won the top prize. The work renders traditional craft and architectural motifs, including roof tiles, norigae ornaments and mother-of-pearl, in 3D graphics. It was praised for expressing Korea's distinctive cultural identity and dynamism while making effective use of the scale and sense of space of the 32-meter media wall.

Excellence awards went to “SEOUL 2026” by Jeong Woochan and “Blooming Korea” by Kim Ria.

Five works received awards: “Korea Flowing Outside the Window” by Try, a team comprising Cha Dongmin and Hwang Injae; “Paan” by Son Eunseong; “The Breath of Taepyeong: The Trajectory of the Four Seasons” by Jeong Jihye; “Connection” by Park Seonggeon; and “Drifting” by Paeng Jihyeon.

The Korea Tourism Organization plans to screen all eight selected works on an ongoing basis on the large media wall on the first floor of Hiker Ground. The works express Korean emotions, landscapes, culture and nature through distinct visual languages. They were designed to give tourists a way to experience images of Korea that differs from conventional tourism information.

Hiker Ground, located on Cheonggyecheon-ro in Jongno-gu, Seoul, is a tourism promotion space operated by the Korea Tourism Organization. It showcases Korea's tourism resources using large-scale video installations and interactive content.

Min Byeongseon, head of the Tourism Industry Division at the Korea Tourism Organization, said, “Through this competition, we discovered immersive media art content suited to the scale of Hiker's large media wall. We hope visitors to Hiker will experience Korea's beauty in a new way through the media wall.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.