Sometimes, some people want to give up on life because it seems like everything has failed. When we lose our dreams, what might make us dream again? Where does the inner strength to wriggle to be the light to society come from?
There is a marvelous inner power within us. The creative energy in us leads us to overcome obstacles, challenge and try new things and bring about tiny changes. So, the sun still rises in the world, and the earth is constantly moving around it.
I can feel that kind of creative and adventurous power whenever I take a walk along the streets of Wonju. Some collapsed houses have been transformed and have a new look. How good it is to see tiny changes occurring despite the many difficulties and obstacles!
Where in Wonju is there the most change? There is the corporate area, innovation city, new train station, new apartment complexes, mountain trails... Many spots here and there have been developed and renovated.
One of the places where tiny changes are occurring is Hakseong-dong, especially Yumun 1-gil. As a part of the Hakseong-dong Urban Regeneration New Deal Movement, Yumun 1-gil is being transformed into a street for culture and art.
As Wonju Station moved to another location, the commercial district around the old station market collapsed, and empty shops are still lined up. Furthermore, as the offices of the Wonju Branch of the Chuncheon District Court, the Legal Counsel, and the Administrative Office were moved, the area around Hakseong-dong has been getting shabbier day by day.
However, with the 2020 Public Art Project entitled, "Our Neighborhood Art Business," in which members of the National Artists Association, a group of 40 artists active in Wonju, participated, the Hakseong-dong station market is taking on a new look day by day, dreaming of new changes. The Art Project has invited artists to move in by renovating collapsing houses in the districts of the old station. Seven artists are currently living here.
Glass painting, bright and colorful tile decorations, wall painting, and mural work on Teueum-gil in Hakseong-dong have completely changed the alleyway.
Among others, Hakseong Gallery, Western artist Park Chan-woo's Labyrinth Gallery, Yeokmart Street, Village's Secret Garden, Korean painter Lee Geun-woo's Small Gallery, Lee Myeong-jun's Print Workshop, the Village Workshop and the Citizens' Street Art College, led by Shin Koo-kyung, as well as the Wonju Branch Representative of the Minjok Artists Association draw our attention.
Western painting, Korean painting, ceramics, natural dyeing, wood carvings, lacquer painting, sculpture and artworks made of hanji paper are displayed in the village gallery. There is also a "mother-in-law's house" that will be used as a guesthouse, an interesting studio, a library for the disabled, a Vietnamese rice noodle restaurant, a cafe, an oil house and a little grocery store.
After wiping off all the messy glass doors, beautiful and bright illustrations have been painted. A "sotdae," a tall wooden pole with a carved bird on top, stands at both ends of the alley as if to drive out evil spirits and to represent people's wishes for prosperity and well-being. A new market street for mutual growth, healing and artistic beauty is being created in small ways.
The author is a member of the Daughters of St. Paul (fsp.pauline.or.kr) living and giving the Good News to the world by means of social communication.