If Colonne Infinite is the latest sculpture exhibition by Park Eun Sun, Amore Infinito is his connection with Pietrasanta in Tuscany where he is building his new large atelier.
I met this Korean artist at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome where he was telling his experience as an artist (and his life story) to young students of Oriana Impei's sculpture course.
Oriana is a professor but above all a very generous woman with an almost oriental sense of living in harmony: she loves students, she loves small villages, like Rocca Santo Stefano where she is Town Ambassador, but she also loves Roman travertine, a stone that is sometimes underestimated.
Park is a Korean artist who has within himself the oriental strength of spirit typical of those who have a dream to achieve, the harshness of stone and the poetry of Italian savoir vivre.
The occasion of the meeting was the celebration of 140 years of diplomatic relations between Italy and Korea at the presence of Korean cultural attaché. And for me it was also the idea of getting to know this country better after being overwhelmed by Korean culture for a month while filming ‘My name is Maria’ with Jennie Kim who took my daughter’s place for a few days.
If anyone has seen large, elaborate, modern yet classical columns in front of the Colosseum or the Bocca della Verità, then they already know Park Eun Sun. The exhibition was titled “Colonne Infinite” (curated by Leonardo Contini): five imposing sculptures in polychrome marble, including a spectacular fourteen-meter-high column, in three symbolic places in the historic center of Rome: the Temple of Venus, Piazza della Bocca della Verità and the Septizodium, near the Circus Maximus.
Park can be considered as the sculptor of columns that become a finished artistic element. The columns recall a classical form typical of temples and large Roman buildings but are reinterpreted in a contemporary way. They are desecrated by breaking the stones and are then worshiped by recomposing the stones in an artistic way in forms that lead back to infinity.
Park's columns are limitless: they start from small jewels and reach majestic dimensions that compare with Trajan's Column.
"I perform desecrating gestures by breaking the stone, but then I study the pieces and recompose them, giving them other symbols and values. At first it was difficult to explain: people, for example, get used to the flavors of a certain favorite dish and find it difficult to taste variations. The same goes for marble: we are so surrounded by ancient beauty that we don't think it's possible to recreate new beauty. I am inspired by classicism, but I'm not interested in copying it. Everyone must find his own unique talent to pass on to the world".
Answering the students' questions, Park tells the story of his firstborn who had the same tendency to draw as he did, a passion that he fought so as not to make his son suffer as he and his wife had done before he became famous. So, his son became an engineer, obeying his father's advice but with the promise (threat) that sooner or later he will return to expressing himself in an artistic sense.
Yet, Park reminded me of engineers when he talked about how he breaks down and reassembles his large sculptures to allow them to be moved easily, or when he has to prepare drawings for collaborators and for the use of cutting machines. I am an engineer, I had an engineering firm with my husband and Park’s pragmatic way of dealing with the pragmatic aspects related to the management of works of art reminded me of the organizational processes we studied for the construction site.
Perhaps his son is much more in tune with the depth of Park's character than it appears at first glance.
The end of the day was by Oriana Impei who invited everyone to an artistic session in a travertine quarry in Tivoli to promote and make this majestic Roman stone increasingly known.
Who knows, maybe our Rocca Santo Stefano could become the Pietrasanta of Lazio?
Maybe it's a dream, but I will follow her in this session in the quarry to rediscover and tell the story of the creative spirit of young people in search of their 'own unique talent'.
Follow us